Walney Wind Farm

F2

BW

51 × Siemens SWT -3.6 -120

The offshore wind farm Walney is a consisting of two sub-areas offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea. A total of 2 × 51 wind turbines from Siemens installed, each with 3.6 MW thus resulting in a total capacity of 367.2 MW. He was until September 2012, the largest offshore wind farm in the world. However, currently there are several offshore wind farms are under construction, which will surpass the wind farm Walney after its completion. In the immediate vicinity are the Ormonde offshore wind farms and Barrow and the not yet realized wind farm West of Duddon Sands. On February 9, 2012, the wind farm from the UK energy and climate minister Edward Davey, who had only a few days previously assumed the office, officially put into operation.

General

The wind farm is operated by the project company Walney (UK ) Offshore Windfarms Limited, which was founded by Dong Energy, Scottish and Southern Energy and a consortium of the Dutch pension fund PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity. Dong Energy owns 50.1 % of the company, Scottish and Southern Energy 25.1 %, and the consortium of PGGM un Dutch Ampère Equity 24.8 %. The wind farm is located about 15 km west of Barrow-in- Furness in a water depth of 19 and 24 meters and extends over an area of 73 km ². The average wind speed is 9.3 m / s at a height of 80 meters. The projected electricity generation in an average wind year is 1,300 GWh. According to Dong Energy allow to host about 320,000 households will be provided.

Technology

In the two equal-sized sub-fields of different wind turbines were used. While at Walney 1 of type Siemens SWT 3.6-107 was used, they retrenched at Walney 2 on the SWT 3.6-120 from the same manufacturer, which has a much larger rotor. Thus, the rotor area increases of 9000 m² in the SWT 3.6-107 with the same rated power to 11,300 m² in the SWT 3.6-120, which leads more hours at full load at a higher capacity factor and. Due to the longer rotor blades, the hub height of the plants was at the plants in Walney 2 raised to 90 meters, at Walney 1 it is 83.5 meters. This results in a total height of the wind turbines of 137 and 150 meters. Situated wind turbines are in several rows, the distances of the individual turbines 749-958 meters. As a foundation came monopile used by the Erndtebrücker iron GmbH & Co. KG were produced in Lubmin and finally rammed 30 meters deep into the seabed. The wind turbines are from the Siemens factory in Esbjerg, Denmark. Each of the two parks has a 1,100 -ton transformer platform on jacket foundation, in which the coming of the wind turbines power of the medium voltage level (34 kV) is transformed to the high voltage level of 132 kV. Then the current through two submarine cables to the substation on land is managed. While Walney 1 as well as the nearby offshore wind farm Ormonde and Barrow is connected to the substation in Heysham, Walney 2 was connected to the newly built substation Stanah north of Blackpool. The cable length is 44 and 43 km, plus another approximately 92 km 34 kV cable for the connection of wind turbines to the substation platforms.

History

The offshore wind farm Walney one of the Round 2 projects that were awarded in late 2003 by the British Trade and Industry Ministry. After Dong had been awarded the contract for Walney, began the plans for the wind farm in November, 2004. The decision to build was made in May 2009. In December 2009, Scottish and Southern Energy acquired a share of 25.1 % of Dong Energy, a year later, also rose PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity one, but Dong Energy remained the majority owner and lead manager. After the orders were awarded, began in early 2010, the first building of Walney 1

Walney 1

In April 2010, the first monopile were built by jack-up rig, took place in July 2010, the construction of the first wind turbine. In parallel, the transformer platform were installed in the summer as well as the wind turbines wired. The last turbine Walney 1 was set up in May 2011, July 2011 Walney 1 went into operation.

Walney 2

Offshore Work on Walney 2 began in March 2011, the first wind turbine was built in early June 2011. A month later, 18 of the 51 turbines were installed. The last turbine was installed in late October, the first wind turbines went 1 November 2011 to the network. After wiring is complete, the foundations of the wind turbines had to be secured with stone weirs against subsurface erosion. The 51 wind turbines were erected within five months and 13 days and wired, which means a new speed record for an offshore wind farm, according to SSE.

Further expansion

On the part of the operator Efforts are being made, the wind farm in a third phase of expansion to increase by an additional 750 MW. The installed capacity would then be about 1 GW.