Isabella Kaminski

Vattenfall completes Ormonde offshore wind farm

News

By Isabella Kaminski

Offshore construction of the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm started in 2010, with the first wind turbine installed in March this year. Vattenfall expects the farm to start generating electricity later this summer. The project construction partners were ode and REpower.

Ormonde's 30 REpower 5M wind turbines have a total installed capacity of 150 MW. According to Vattenfall, it can generate enough electricity annually to meet the equivalent electricity needs of 100,000 UK households.

Ole Bigum Nielsen, Vattenfall’s Head of Offshore Wind Development in the UK, says: "Vattenfall’s Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is the first commercial and largest deployment of Scotland’s Burntisland Fabrications’ steel lattice ‘quadruped’ foundation and REpower’s 5M turbine, the largest commercially available offshore wind turbine in the world. Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is a sign of things to come as the UK offshore wind industry gears up to deliver its enormous potential.”

The REpower 5M wind turbine started life in a factory in Germany with the components – rotor, nacelle and tower sections – transported to the Harland & Wolff docks in Belfast. From here the turbines were transported in pairs to the Ormonde site on board the A2Sea installation vessel the SeaJack.

Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm Project Details:

  • Number of turbines - 30
  • Turbine capacity - 5MW
  • Total installed capacity - 150MW
  • Homes equivalent production - >100,000
  • Water depth (low tide) - Around 17 to 21 metres
  • Water depth (high tide) - Around 26 to 30 metres
  • Foundation type - Steel jacket
  • Area of wind farm - 8.6km2
  • Distance from shore - Around 10km from Barrow-in-Furness
  • Tip height (from sea level) - 153m
  • Hub height - 90m
  • Rotor diameter - 126m
  • Total weight of turbine - 661 tonnes
  • Weight of rotor and hub - 125 tonnes
  • Weight of nacelle - 315 tonnes
  • Weight of towers - 221 tonnes
  • Cables to shore - 1
  • Length of cable to shore - 41,700m
  • Cable landfall - Half Moon Bay
  • Distance from cable landfall to substation - 2,800m
  • Substation - Heysham