Ørsted: Walney Extension Brings UK Installed Offshore Wind Capacity to 7.5GW

Ørsted has installed nine out of 47 Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines on the 659MW Walney Extension offshore wind farm, bringing the total installed offshore wind capacity in waters off the UK to 7.5GW, the developer said.

Walney Extension, off the coast of Cumbria, is being constructed in two phases using turbine technology from two different manufacturers – MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and Siemens Gamesa.

The first nine Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines have now been installed in the second and final phase of construction. This will be the first time the 7MW Siemens Gamesa turbines have been used commercially anywhere in the world, Ørsted said.

MHI Vestas has already installed the first phase with 40 of its 8MW turbines and commissioning is now nearing completion.

The wind farm, which is a shared-ownership project between Ørsted (50%) and two Danish pension funds PFA (25%) and PKA (25%), is due for completion in the second half of 2018.