First Power at 400 Megawatt Rampion Offshore Windfarm

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--First power has been generated at the 400-megawatt (MW) Rampion offshore windfarm located 13 kilometres (km) off the Sussex coast in England.

The announcement comes just two months after Industrial Info reported on the installation of the last of 116 turbines at the project, one of the largest European wind projects then under construction. For additional information, see October 4, 2017, article--Final Turbine in at 400-Megawatt Rampion Offshore Windfarm in U.K..

The project will use 116 V112 3.45-MW wind turbines from MHI Vestas Wind Systems A/S (OMX:VWS) (Aarhus, Denmark). Each turbine consists of an 80-metre tower, weighing approximately 200 tonnes, and boasting nacelles with three 55-metre blades.

"We're especially proud to have reached this milestone as the first power is generated at Rampion," said Matthew Swanwick, project director for the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. "Over the last two years, the construction team has worked tirelessly in all weather conditions to complete this remarkable engineering feat. Over the coming weeks and months, the turbines will one-by-one begin to be turned on and generate power as they are brought online. This process will take us into 2018 to complete."

The windfarm is spread across a 72-square-kilometre zone and cost an estimated £1.6 billion ($2 billion) for developer E.ON (XETRA:EOAN) (Düsseldorf, Germany). With its 400-MW generating capacity, full commissioning is expected in June 2018, when it will be capable of powering approximately 347,000 homes.

Turbine installation at Rampion started in March and took over six months to complete.

Offshore wind is expected to secure most of the U.K.'s future renewable energy funding. Industrial Info reported this summer that offshore wind projects dominated the last U.K. government power auction, coming in far cheaper than new nuclear power for the first time. In the second round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, the government awarded contracts to three proposed offshore windfarms with a combined capacity of 3.2 gigawatts (GW). For additional information, see September 13, 2017, article - Offshore Wind is Big Winner in U.K. Power Auctions.

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