First Turbine For West of Duddon Sands

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The first of 108 turbines has been installed at the large West of Duddon Sands offshore windfarm located off the Cumbrian coast in the north west of the U.K..

The 389-megawatt (MW) windfarm is owned 50/50 by Denmark's largest utility, Dong Energy A/S (Fredericia, Denmark) (50%) and ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) (Glasgow, Scotland), part of Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola SA (MCE:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain). In March this year, Dong boosted its offshore ambitions in the U.K. by taking ownership of the U.K.'s first dedicated offshore wind terminal in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The €58 million ($76 million) offshore wind terminal has been handed over by Belfast Harbour (Belfast) in preparation for the U.K.'s largest rollout of offshore windfarms. The harbour's first job is to support the development of the West of Duddon Sands project in the Irish Sea. For additional information, see March 1, 2013, article - U.K. gets First Offshore Wind Terminal .

A further 107 turbines, rated at 3.6MW each from German engineering firm Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany), will be installed by Swire Blue Ocean's Pacific Orca and the Sea Installer installation vessel, owned by A2SEA (Fredericia, Denmark).

"This project is very important for Dong Energy; it is our eighth wind farm in the U.K. and when completed will take us past the mark of 2.4-gigwatts (GW) of constructed capacity, well on the way to reaching our target of 6.5 GW by 2020," explained Henrik Scheinemann, Vice President in Dong Energy's Wind Power business.

Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower Renewables Project Director, added: "This is another major milestone for the West of Duddon Sands project. The operations at Belfast Harbour have been working well, and we are delighted with progress on the project."

Dong recently sold a 26% share in its company for 11 billion Danish crowns ($2 billion) in an effort to strengthen its financial situation and boost its dominant position in the European offshore wind sector. The company Europe's leading offshore wind energy company with more than 2,000 MW of installed capacity off the coasts of Germany, the U.K. and Denmark. For additional information, see August 21, 2013, article - Dong Energy Raises $2 billion in Share Sell-off.

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