Vattenfall’s Ormonde offshore wind farm

The Swedish utility took a major step closer to fully commissioning the Ormonde offshore wind farm yesterday, after switching on the first 5MW REpower turbine on site.

A Vattenfall spokesman said all 30 wind turbines should be generating power by this autumn, with full commissioning expected by the end of the year. Once complete, Ormonde will generate enough power annually to meet the equivalent electricity needs of around 100,000 UK households.

Energy minister Charles Hendry welcomed the news, and said the involvement of Burntisland Fabrications and Harland & Wolff in construction also marked a success for the UK offshore wind power supply chain. ‘This is a real milestone for the company and the people of Barrow-in-Furness, and I congratulate everyone involved for their efforts,’ he said.

Work on a 30 wind turbines wind farm off the coast of Cumbria has been completed. Swedish-based energy firm Vattenfall began construction of the Ormonde Wind Farm, in the Irish Sea off the coast of Barrow, in May last year.

The wind farm, which covers an area of about five square miles, will be operational later this year and generate enough electricity for up to 100,000 homes. A network of underwater cables will deliver power from the 500ft (153m) wind turbines to the mainland.

The 150 MW wind farm consists of 30 Repower 5 MW wind turbines. The final generator was installed at 3am on 1 August by A2Sea vessel SeaJack. According to Repower offshore head Frank Zimmermann: "We were able to complete the wind power installation around three weeks ahead of the schedule."

Installation was completed four months after the first wind turbine was erected. Vattenfall said it now looks forward to generating electricity from the wind farm for the first time later this summer.

Vattenfall head of UK offshore wind power development Ole Bigum Nielsen said: “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 5 MW wind turbines, the largest commercially available offshore wind turbine in the world.” Ormonde’s first wind turbine was lifted onto the foundation and installed on 23 March this year.

www.vattenfall.com/