Greater Gabbard wind farm

Greater Gabbard Wind Farm
Farm seen from a plane flying from Amsterdam to London
Location of Greater Gabbard wind farm in the North Sea
Country	England
Location	Inner Gabbard and The Galloper banks North Sea Suffolk Coast
Coordinates	51°52′48″N 1°56′24″E / 51.88000°N 1.94000°E / 51.88000; 1.94000Coordinates: 51°52′48″N 1°56′24″E / 51.88000°N 1.94000°E / 51.88000; 1.94000
Status	Operational
Commission date	2012
Owner(s)	Scottish and Southern RWE Npower Renewables
Wind farm
Distance from shore	23 km (14 mi)
Power generation
Units operational	140
Make and model	Siemens Wind Power: SWT3.6–107
Nameplate capacity	504 MW
2013 output	1.8 TWh[1]

Turbines in harbour, waiting to be mounted. Red helicopter platform on top.

As seen from the Stena Line Harwich to Hook of Holland car ferry in 2014.

Greater Gabbard is a 504 MW wind farm on sandbanks 23 kilometres (14 mi) off the coast of Suffolk in England at a cost of £1.5 billion.^[2] Onshore construction activities commenced in early July 2008 at Sizewell. It was completed on 7 September 2012 with all of the Siemens SWT3.6–107 turbines connected.^[3]

History

The project was originally developed by Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Limited (GGOWL) which was a joint venture between Airtricity and Fluor. Airtricity was subsequently bought by Scottish and Southern Energy who have bought out Fluor's 50% stake for £40m which is expected to cost £1.3b. Fluor are now contracted to design, supply, installation and commissioning of the balance of the plant.^[4] Scottish and Southern sold a 50% stake to RWE, the owners of Npower, in November 2008 for £308m.^[5]

The project was given the go-ahead in May 2008 and work started in June.^[6] In July 2011 erection of the turbines was two-thirds complete, with all the pile foundations installed.

In October 2009 Seajacks Ltd delivered its 7,000 tonne Leviathan vessel to Fluor Ltd which sailed to Harwich to prepare the hook-up and commissioning of an in-field substation and then installation of the turbines.^[7] The first foundations were installed in autumn 2009 with the first of a total of 140 turbines installed in the spring 2010.^[8] Electricity generation began on 29 December 2010 and construction was completed on 7 September 2012.^[3] During April 2014 to March 2015 the wind farm produced 1.7 TWh, corresponding to a capacity factor of 39%.^[9]

The wind farm may be seen by the public from the Stena Line Harwich to Hook of Holland car & passenger ferry, the route passing within a few kilometres.

Galloper extension

An extension of the project, called Galloper, was agreed in May 2013. The proposal was to add up to 140 turbines to the development, producing up to 504 MW of electricity. The wind farm was expected to be completed in 2017.^[10][11] The project was being developed in partnership by RWE Innogy and SSE.^[12]

In November 2013 the project capacity was reduced to 68 turbines producing 340 MW. In March 2014, SSE announced that it would be pulling out of the project.^[12] In October 2014 RWE Innogy announced that it too was abandoning the project,^[13] but in December the company revealed that it was still seeking potential investment partners.^[14]

Greater Gabbard specifications

• Number of turbines: 140^[2][15]
• Power rating: 504 MW^[15]
• Load factor: 39.6% (estimated)^[15]
• Estimated output: 1.75 TWh per year^[15]
• Cost: £1512 million^[2] (£650 million not counting grid connection)^[16]
• Cost of grid connection: £317 million^[17]
• Location: offshore, 23 kilometres (14 mi) from Sizewell on the Inner Gabbard and The Galloper sandbanks^[4]
• Water Depth: 20m – 32m

Incidents

On 12 November 2009, a man was killed and a woman injured after a chain broke and the two people were hit with pieces of the chain. Police responded to the incident, and an investigation was launched. The casualties were on board a tugboat, the Typhoon.^[18]

On 21 May 2010, a man died and another suffered serious injuries following an accident at Parkeston Quay, Harwich. A Siemens engineer from Norresundby, Denmark, died in the incident. A 43-year-old German national was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital. The incident happened at about 7.50 am while loading a wind turbine blade on the vessel Seajack.^[19][20] Siemens and Fluor were ordered to pay £1 million for the incident.^[21]

In September 2013 remedial work was begun on the export cables close to shore as the cables were not buried sufficiently deeply.^[22] The work which was meant to take three weeks was only finished in September 2014.^[22] The work caused problems for local fishermen who asked the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm for a disruption payment.^[22] A spokesman for SSE denied that the work was responsible for the snagging of fishing nets.^[22]

See also

• List of offshore wind farms
• List of offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom
• List of offshore wind farms in the North Sea

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm.

• Greater Gabbard, RWE Innogy
• LORC Knowledge – Datasheet for Greater Gabbard
• The world's largest Offshore Wind Farm is taking shape at Greater Gabbard
• Offshore Energy Structures: For Wind Power, Wave Energy and Hybrid Marine Platforms, page 28. Madjid Karimirad. Springer, 5 December 2014 . ISBN 3319121758.
• Government documents