Barrow Offshore Wind Farm
Barrow Offshore Wind Farm | |
---|---|
Country | England, United Kingdom |
Location | East Irish Sea, south west of Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria |
Coordinates | 53°59′N 3°17′W / 53.983°N 3.283°W |
Status | Operational |
Commission date | 2006 |
Owner | Ørsted A/S |
Wind farm | |
Type | |
Distance from shore | 7 km (4 mi) |
Hub height | 75 m (246 ft) |
Rotor diameter | 90 m (300 ft) |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 30 |
Make and model | Vestas Wind Systems: Vestas V90-3MW |
Nameplate capacity | 90MW |
External links | |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
The Barrow Offshore Wind Farm is a 30 turbine 90MW capacity offshore wind farm in the East Irish Sea approximately 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south west of Walney Island, near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England.
Construction of the wind farm took place between 2005 and 2006. The farm is operated by Barrow Offshore Wind Limited, owned by Ørsted A/S.
Planning and design
Barrow wind farm was a UK Round 1 wind farm development originally developed by Warwick Energy Limited.[1] A planning application was submitted in 2001,[2] and planning consent given in March 2003;[3] the project was sold to Centrica (25%, c.£22.5million), Ørsted A/S (then named DONG Energy) (37.5%), and Statkraft (37.5%) in Sep. 2003.[4][5] The estimated cost of developing the project was £100million, of which £10million was provided by a UK government grant.[5][6] In 2004 Centrica and Ørsted bought the Statkraft stake, forming a 50:50 joint venture in the development.[7]
The initial Warwick Energy proposal was for a 30 turbine wind farm 7 km southwest of Walney Island (Cumbria), with a generating capacity of up to 108MW; electrical power supply to the mainland was to be via a ~25 km long 132kV cable making groundfall near Heysham, with connection to the mainland electrical grid at an extension to an existing electricity substation south of Heysham nuclear power station.[8] Turbines were expected to have ~50m radius blades, with a 75m hub height, and be in water at a depth of ~20m, with a ~32.5m sub-sea bed monopile foundation; the turbines were to be spaced approximately 500m apart in four rows aligned to face the prevailing southwesterly winds, with a row spacing of ~750m.[9]
Construction
In July 2004 Kellogg Brown & Root Ltd and Vestas-Celtic Wind Technology Ltd were awarded the contract to install and commission the wind farm, and to operate the wind farm for 5 years.[10] A 30 turbine wind farm with a capacity of 90MW was constructed by the consortium between July 2005 and May 2006. The main construction base was at Harland and Wolff's shipyard in Belfast.[11] In exceptions where pile driving of monopile foundations failed, drilling was used to form the monopile foundations.[11][12]
IEC 1A class Vestas V90-3.0MW wind turbines were used, mounted on a 75m tower connected to 4.75 m (15.6 ft) monopiles supplied by a Sif/Smulders joint venture.[13] Turbine to offshore substation electric connection were at 33kV, with the voltage stepped up to 132kV at an offshore substation supplied by Areva T&D (transformer), Sif/Smulders (superstructure and monopile) and designed by KBR and Mott MacDonald. Cables were supplied by Prysmian (33kV) and Nexans (132kV).[14]
Construction of the wind farm was completed in June 2006 with the first power generated in March 2006.[15] The operator is Barrow Offshore Wind Limited, owned by Centrica and Ørsted.[1]
Operation
Since 2008 (to 2012) the farm operated at between 30 and 40% capacity factor, generating between 240 and 320 GWh of electrical energy per year.[16] Its levelised cost has been estimated at £87/MWh.[17]
In 2011 regulatory changes required Ørsted/Centrica to divest the electrical transmission assets of the wind farm, which were sold to TC Barrow OFTO Ltd. for £34 million.[18]
In 2014 Ørsted acquired Centrica's 50% holding in the wind farm.[19]
See also
- Ormonde Wind Farm, Walney Wind Farm, West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm – other nearby wind farms in the Irish Sea
- List of offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom
- List of tallest buildings and structures in Barrow-in-Furness
References
- ^ a b Barrow (4C Offshore) Developers/Owners/Operators
- ^ Barrow Offshore Wind Farm (LORC) Timeline & Track Records
- ^ "Barrow Offshore Wind Farm", warwickenergy.com, archived from the original on 10 December 2003
- ^ "Offshore Wind Farms", warwickenergy.com, archived from the original on 15 October 2004
- ^ a b Johnston, Lachlan (13 September 2003), "Centrica backs windfarm in the Irish Sea", The Daily Telegraph
- ^ Centrica forms joint venture to acquire offshore windfarm company (press release), Centrica, 12 September 2003
- ^ "Centrica pays £2 million to increase stake in Barrow windfarm project", icis.com, 23 July 2004
- ^ Barrow wind farm (Non technical summary) (Warwick Energy) pp.1–2
- ^ Barrow wind farm (Non technical summary) (Warwick Energy) pp.2–3
- ^ Centrica announces construction contracts for Barrow windfarm (press release), Centrica, 23 July 2004
- ^ a b "Barrow Offshore Wind Farm", mpi-offshore.com, 15 June 2006, archived from the original on 14 September 2017, retrieved 21 April 2014
- ^ Beyer, Manfred; Brunner, Wolfgang G., New BAUER Flydrill system drilling monopiles at Barrow Offshore Wind Farm UK (PDF), BAUER Maschinen GmbH., archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016, retrieved 21 April 2014
- ^ Barrow Offshore Wind Farm (LORC) Turbine, Tower & Substructure
- ^ Barrow Offshore Wind Farm (LORC) Substations, Inter-Array & Export Cables
- ^ Barrow Offshore Wind Farm (Dong)
- ^ Barrow Offshore Wind Farm (LORC) Production and Performance
- ^ Aldersey-Williams, John; Broadbent, Ian; Strachan, Peter (2019). "Better estimates of LCOE from audited accounts – A new methodology with examples from United Kingdom offshore wind and CCGT". Energy Policy. 128: 25–35. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.044. hdl:10059/3298.
- ^ Disposal of Barrow offshore wind farm transmission assets (press release), Centrica, 27 September 2011
- ^ "Centrica exits Barrow", renews.biz, 19 December 2014
Sources
- "BOWind", bowind.co.uk, archived from the original on 8 July 2012
- "Barrow Offshore Wind Farm", dongenergy.co.uk, archived from the original on 21 February 2014
- Barrow Offshore Wind Farm NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY (PDF), Warwick Energy Limited, May 2002, archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2014
- "Barrow Offshore Wind Farm", lorc.dk, retrieved 1 April 2013
- "Barrow", 4coffshore.com, retrieved 1 April 2014
External links
- "Barrow Offshore Wind Farm", engineering-timelines.com, retrieved 1 April 2014