WIND FARM UPDATE

Gwynt y Môr

The 576MW Gwynt y Môr wind farm, located 8 miles offshore in Liverpool Bay in water depths of over 28 metres, was officially inaugurated by Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales on 18 June. The offshore wind farm is the world’s second largest, with 160 Siemens 3.6MW wind turbines on monopile foundations and 2 offshore substations in an area of over 80km².

Gwynt y Mor is owned by RWE (60%) and its partners Stadtwerke Miinchen (30%) and Siemens (10%). Over £2bn was invested in the wind farm -including RWE’s £19m community benefit fund. Over £90million has been contributed to Wales’ economy. The wind farm will generate enough power to supply 400,000 households with renewable electricity per year. The wind farm will be operated from the new O&M base at the Port of Mostyn providing around 100 long term jobs.

Kentish Flats Extension

Construction activities at Vattenfall’s 49.5MW Kentish Flats Extension offshore wind farm, located on the southern side of the Outer Thames Estuary, in immediate distance to the90MW Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, are ongoing.

All array and export cables have been installed and the cable protection completed. In the meantime GeoSea’s  installation vessel Neptune is busy with turbine installation work, carrying three sets of turbine components at a time from the port of Esbjerg in Denmark. The extension will have in total 15 MHI Vestas 3.3MW turbines.

The project is currently still on schedule with energy generation expected to start in Q4 this year.

Race Bank

In mid-June DONG Energy gave green light for the construction of the 580MW Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm, some 27km off the east coast in the UK, in the Greater Wash area. DONG Energy has chosen Siemens as the preferred turbine supplier for the wind farm. It concerns the proposed delivery of 91 of their 6MW wind turbines. Race Bank is expected to be fully commissioned in 2018 after which it will be able to supply green electricity to more than 400,000 British households. The wind farm will be constructed and operated under the UK’s ROC scheme (1.8 ROC).

Rampion

On 18 May the green light was also given for the 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm when a partnership between E.ON and the UK Green Investment Bank plc was confirmed, securing the needed £1.3bn project investment.

Rampion is located 13km off the Sussex coast. It will have 116 MHI Vestas V112-3.45MW turbines installed in an area of 72km2. This year the onshore preparations will take place, such as the construction of an onshore substation in Twineham and the onshore cable routing. UK service provider Carillion has been awarded the contract to design, supply, install and test a twin circuit onshore 150kV cable system.

Offshore construction is expected to start in early 2016. For the construction phase around 350 to 450 jobs will be created. E.ON awarded JDR the contract to design and manufacture 142km of 36 kilovolt inter-array cables. JDR will use their Hartlepool facility for this project.

An EPC contract for the offshore substation has been awarded to Babcock. The company will construct a 2,500t topside and its jacket foundation at their yard in Rosyth, UK. It is planning to start with the manufacturing in Q3 2015, with completion of the project scheduled for December 2016. ABB has won the order to supply the power infrastructure for the on,- and offshore substations. The foundations will be produced by Dutch steel manufacturer Sif Group for which Euskal Forging will provide the flanges.

When in full operation, planned for 2018, it could produce green energy to power around 300,000 UK households annually.

Westermost Rough

Full power output has been achieved at the Westermost Rough 210MW offshore wind farm, located 8km off the Holderness coast, north of Hull. In total 35 Siemens 6MW turbines are installed  on monopile foundations in an area covering 35km2. It is the first commercial project where the Siemens 6MW turbine is used.

Over 900 people were involved during the construction. The wind farm is now being operated by around 50 people from a new maintenance base in Grimsby. Westermost Rough will be handed over to be fully operational after final testing has been finished. It is able to generate enough green power to power around 150,000 UK homes annually for the next 25 years.

Westermost Rough is a project by a joint venture between DONG Energy (50%) and its partners Marubeni Corporation (25%) and the UK Green Investment Bank pic (25%).