Statoil officially opened the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm Operations Centre in Great Yarmouth today as part of the Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival.
The former warehouse on the south bank of the river harbour has been completely redeveloped to accommodate offices and a dedicated 24/7 control room to manage the operations and maintenance of the £1.5 billion offshore wind farm. Once in operation in 2017, more than 70 people will be working full time with operation and maintenance of the wind farm at the onshore base or at the offshore site.
The Head of Statoil Wind Operations UK, Rune Rønvik , said that Statoil may serve other wind farms from this Great Yarmouth base, including the world’s first floating wind farm.
“Already it has been made a principle decision to provide Hywind Scotland – the new pilot wind farm of floating wind turbines currently under construction for installation off the east coast of Scotland – with technical O&M support and control room services from here,” Rønvik said.
The 402MW Dudgeon offshore wind farm, which can supply more than 410,000 UK homes with clean energy, will be located some 20 miles off the coast of the seaside town of Cromer in North Norfolk.
Statoil is developing the project and will continue as the wind farm’s operator when it starts generating electricity in early 2017.