E.ON Switches on Robin Rigg Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--E.ON UK(Coventry, England), part of German power company E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany), has flicked the switch on at the 180-megawatt (MW) Robin Rigg offshore windfarm in the Solway Firth, off the west coast of Scotland.

Testing on the last of 60 turbines has been completed, and the facility is now capable of generating enough electricity for 117,000 homes. Although the project will be eclipsed by much larger offshore projects in the coming years, including E.ON's London Array windfarm, Robin Rigg is one of the largest offshore wind facilities now operating in the U.K.

"We're delighted that the windfarm is up and running," said Michael Lewis, European renewables managing director for E.ON. "It's been a really exciting time for us, and particularly the team that has worked so hard to get to this point. Not only does Robin Rigg represent a significant contribution to the government's renewable energy targets, it is also a significant asset within our own portfolio and we're incredibly proud of that. We can now look forward to building bigger schemes, like the London Array, the Humber Gateway and our Round 3 project off the coast of Hastings, using the knowledge that we've gained by building Robin Rigg."

Constructing Robin Rigg has been a bit of a trial by fire, with the project suffering numerous delays. In February last year, E.ON was forced to evacuate 39 workers from a cable-laying barge when high seas snapped four of the barges' five anchor cables. The first turbine was installed in November 2008, but the project has been delayed by other factors, ranging from rough weather hampering installation ships to shipyard delays.

Robin Rigg, which lies 9 kilometres off the coast on the Scottish side of the Scotland-England border, uses 60 V90-3MW Vestas turbines and cost almost 500 million euros ($676 million) to construct.

In related news, E.ON has completed the refurbishment of the small Great Eppleton windfarm near Hetton-le-Hole. Four two-bladed turbines have now been replaced with larger three-bladed versions, producing 8 MW, almost three times the power of the old farm.

Gary Simmonds, project developer for E.ON, said: "The turbine design at Great Eppleton was rather unusual in that they had two blades rather than three. We've now updated the windfarm with the latest technology, in a process known as a repower. When running at full capacity, the new turbines will produce enough electricity for more than 5,000 homes and displace the emission of 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year."

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the Wind Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Landfill Gas-to-Energy and Utility-Scale Solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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