The Thornton Bank offshore wind farm, developed by the C-Power consortium, was running at full speed in December and January and produced 24% more energy than expected during those two months thanks to exceptionally favourable wind conditions and high technical reliability of the wind farm.
The 54 wind turbines, which are positioned 30 kilometres out to sea, produced 277.4 GWh of electricity in December and January. That is the equivalent of the annual energy consumption of 80,000 households. This production is three times higher than production in months with extremely poor wind conditions such as July and August 2013.
This is explained by a high technical availability, high average wind speeds and the fact that during those two winter months, wind speeds only fell below 20 km/h on 8 days. This is good news: wind turbines start turning at 13 km/h and reach their maximum capacity from 49 km/h.
In December and January, there were 12 stormy days with average wind speeds exceeding 80 km/h. These powerful turbines are only discontinued for safety reasons when the wind reaches speeds of 108 km/h or more for 10 minutes. Such high speeds were not reached, so all wind turbines always continued to run at full speed.
The Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo officially inaugurated the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm in September 2013.
[mappress]
Press release, February 7, 2014; Image: C-Power