First Power From Westermost Rough Offshore Windfarm

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--First power has been generated from the 1 billion-euro ($1.3 billion) Westermost Rough offshore windfarm, located eight kilometers (km) off the Yorkshire coast in the U.K.

The milestone comes just a month after the first Siemens' (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) 6-megawatt (MW) turbine was installed. The windfarm, which will feature 35 turbines and have a maximum generating capacity of 210 MW, will be able to produce enough electricity for approximately 200,000 homes. Westermost Rough is owned by a joint venture group comprising Danish energy firm, DONG Energy (Fredericia, Denmark) (50%), Marubeni Corporation (25%) and the U.K. Green Investment Bank (25%).

Dong said that the use of the larger 6-MW turbines, which are twice the capacity of most offshore wind turbines currently in use in U.K. waters, marks an important step in reducing the cost of developing offshore windfarms. The SWT-6.0-154 turbine has a rotor diameter of 154 meters, with blades measuring 75 meters.

"The process has gone extremely well," claimed Sam Hall, lead commissioning manager for Westermost Rough. "The energization process up to first power has been achieved, thanks to a huge effort from the entire onshore substation team, the offshore construction site team, our contractors and all of the line organization who support us. We energized all the way through the transmissions assets of the wind farm in early August and have been working since on the installation and commissioning of the first batch of turbines. Over the coming weeks the first turbines will be generating clean, green electricity and then supplying it to the U.K. grid."

DONG is one of eight of Europe's leading energy firms that formed an alliance in August to cut the costs associated with building and maintaining offshore windfarms. The U.K.-based Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult also comprises E.ON AG (PINK: EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany), SSE plc (Perth, Scotland), Electricité de France SA (EDF) (EPA:EDF) (Paris), ScottishPower Renewables (Glasgow, Scotland), Centrica plc (OTC:CPYYY) (Windsor, England), Vattenfall (Stockholm, Sweden) and RWE AG (FWB:RWE) (Essen, Germany). The group is aiming to drive the industry towards reducing the cost of electricity generated by offshore wind to the £100-per-megawatt-hour (MWh) goal. For additional information, see August 18, 2014, article--Alliance to Cut Costs of Offshore Windfarms.

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