The Ormonde Wind Farm is a wind farm west of Barrow-in-Furness in the Irish Sea. The wind farm covers an area of 8.7 square kilometres (3.4 sq mi). It has a total capacity of 150 MW and is expected to produce around 500 GWh of electricity per year.[1]

Ormonde Wind Farm
Map
Country
  • United Kingdom
LocationWest of Barrow-in-Furness, Irish Sea
Coordinates54°06′N 3°24′W / 54.1°N 3.4°W / 54.1; -3.4
StatusOperational
Construction beganMay 2010
Commission date
  • February 2012
Wind farm
Type
Max. water depth17–21 m (56–69 ft)
Distance from shore9.5 km (5.9 mi)
Hub height100 m (328 ft)
Rotor diameter
  • 126 m (413 ft)
Site area8.7 km2 (3.4 sq mi)
Power generation
Units operational30 × 5 MW
Make and modelSenvion REpower 5M (30)
Nameplate capacity
  • 150 MW
Capacity factor38.5 %
Annual net output500 GWh
External links
Websitegroup.vattenfall.com/uk/what-we-do/our-projects/ormonde
CommonsRelated media on Commons
Map
Wind farm layout

Planning

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Originally the Ormonde project was planned as a hybrid wind and natural gas powered electricity generation plant supplied from the Ormonde South and Ormonde North gas fields. The project was developed by Eclipse Energy. In 2008, Vattenfall bought Eclipse Energy and the project was developed as wind energy only. The project management company throughout the project has been Offshore Design Engineering.[2]

Construction

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The SeaJack installation vessel, Belfast Lough, 30 May 2011 en route from Harland and Wolff

Construction started in 2010 and was completed in August 2011.[3][4] Prysmian provided submarine power cable connections including 27 km of 33 kV inter-array cables to connect the wind turbines and a 42 km of 132 kV export cable to connect the wind farm to the substation.[5][6][unreliable source?] 30 turbines each with 5 MW nameplate capacity are provided by REpower and electrical works were to be carried out by Areva.[7] Steel foundations for generators were developed and designed by OWEC Tower and produced by Burntisland Fabrications.[8] Logistics and assembly services are provided by Harland and Wolff. Generators were installed by A2SEA.[9] The first four steel foundations were delivered in July 2010,[1] and were installed by a joint venture of Scaldis and Geosea BV.

The wind farm was commissioned on 22 February 2012 and is now fully operational.[10]

Its levelised cost has been estimated at £149/MWh.[11]

Incident

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In 2021, a rotor and blades from a wind turbine fell into the sea following a maintenance error. The components broke up and debris has been washed up on nearby beaches.[12][13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Snieckus, Darius (15 July 2010). "Foundations for Vattenfall's Ormonde wind farm on the way". ReCharge. NHST Media Group. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
  2. ^ "ODE Projects - Ormonde Wind Farm". Archived from the original on 12 May 2011.
  3. ^ Wolstenholme, Matthew (4 May 2010). "Vattenfall starts construction work on Ormonde wind farm". ReCharge. NHST Media Group. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
  4. ^ "Work on Ormonde Wind Farm off Barrow completed". BBC News. 3 August 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  5. ^ "Prysmian secures €27 million project". Prysmian Group. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm".
  7. ^ Johnson, Rachel (26 February 2009). "Work contracts awarded for Ormonde offshore wind hybrid". NewEnergyFocus.com.
  8. ^ "Burntisland bags wind job". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. 20 February 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
  9. ^ Stromsta, Karl-Erik (1 June 2010). "A2SEA bags contract for work on Vattenfall's Ormonde project". ReCharge. NHST Media Group. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
  10. ^ businessGreen news website
  11. ^ 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. S2CID 158158724.
  12. ^ "Ormonde offshore wind farm debris could be widespread". BBC News. 24 October 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  13. ^ Richard, Craig (25 October 2021). "Rotor and blades fall into sea at Vattenfall's Ormonde offshore wind farm". Wind Power Monthly. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
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