The Barrow Offshore Wind Farm is a 30 turbine 90MW capacity offshore wind farm in the East Irish Sea approximately seven kilometres (four nautical miles) southwest 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 £100 million, 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 108 MW; electrical power supply to the mainland was to be via a ~25 km long 132 kV 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 ~20 m, with a ~32.5 m sub-sea bed monopile foundation; the turbines were to be spaced approximately 500 m apart in four rows aligned to face the prevailing southwesterly winds, with a row spacing of ~750 m.[9]
Construction
Offshore substation, with jackup ship and wind turbine in background (2006)
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 five 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 V90-3.0 MW wind turbines were used, mounted on a 75 m tower connected to 4.75 m (15 ft 7 in) monopiles supplied by a Sif/Smulders joint venture.[13] Turbine to offshore substation electric connection were at 33 kV, with the voltage stepped up to 132 kV 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 (33 kV) and Nexans (132 kV).[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]
^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. S2CID158158724.
