Wind farm layout
Westermost Rough Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm 8 kilometres (5 mi) north east of Withernsea off the Holderness coast, in the North Sea, England. The farm covers an area of approximately 35 km2 (14 sq mi) with a generation capacity of approximately 210 MW. It became operational in May 2015.
History
The Westermost Wind farm site was originally awarded to Total in 2003 during the initial Round 2 wind farm tendering process; Total later withdrew and the concession was returned to the Crown Estate in 2006.[1] In 2007 DONG Energy was awarded a lease from The Crown Estate to develop a wind farm at Westermost Rough.[2] The company Westermost Rough Ltd was established 2007;[n 1] a subsidiary of DONG Energy.[3]
A planning application was submitted in November 2009,[4] and consent was given by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2011 for a development of up to 80 turbines of up to 245 MW power with a limit of 172 m (564 ft) turbine tip height, and 150 m (490 ft) rotor diameter, as well as associated onshore and offshore substations, cabling and other infrastructure.[5]
Initial expectations were for an earliest in service date of 2014,[4] in January 2013 construction of the wind farm was confirmed, with construction scheduled to start in 2014 with the farm operational by 2015.[6][7][8]
DONG Energy sold a 50% stake in the wind farm in equal parts to the Green Investment Bank and to Marubeni Corporation for a total of £240 million; as part of the sale the two buyers committed to investing £500 million in the construction of the wind farm;[9] the two companies, through the joint company WMR JV Investco Limited secured £370 million from lenders in August 2014 to fund the capital cost of the project.[10][11]
Design, manufacture and construction
The wind farm is located 8 km (5 mi) off the Holderness coast, roughly northeast of Withernsea.[n 2] The proposed design is for 35 to 80 turbines of between 3 and 7 MW power output, in an area of 35 km2 (14 sq mi), with a total installed capacity of up to 245 MW.[12]
The offshore substation design was subcontracted to Ramboll,[13] with medium voltage turbine to offshore transformer submarine cables supplied by Nexans.[14] High voltage 155 kV submarine export cables and 155/275 kV underground cables were contracted to be supplied from LS Cable & System of Korea.[15][16] The cable landing point is to be near Tunstall, East Riding of Yorkshire, with a national grid connection made via the buried cables to a new substation at Salt End.[17]
The project was the first commercial use of gearless 6 MW Siemens Wind turbines;[18][19] 35 turbines were to be installed, giving a capacity of 210 MW.[20] Varde, Denmark based Titan Wind Energy was contracted to supply towers, with tower foundations supplied by Bladt Industries of Aalborg, Denmark.[21] The driven monopile foundations are 6.25 metres (20.5 ft) diameter with mass up to 800 t, with 425 t transition pieces.[22]
A dual Doppler radar system, (originally developed by the US National Wind Institute,[23][24] and supplied by SmartWind Technologies, LLC.[25]) was used to measure high-density wind details over the large wind farm area, with the experiment supported by the Carbon Trust organisation.[26][27]
GeoSea was awarded the contract to install foundation piles in April 2013.[28] The first foundation pile was installed in February 2014.[29] In early 2014 residents of Withernsea and the nearby area reported noise and vibration disturbance during the night time, attributed to piling at the wind farm site; by April 2014 an investigation by the Marine Management Organisation had found evidence of noise, but the results were not conclusive enough for it to act on.[30] Foundation installation was completed by May 2014,[31] and the offshore substation installed by June 2014.[32] Turbine installation was completed March 2015.[33]
Operations
The wind farm was commissioned and became operational in May 2015.[34] Its levelised cost has been estimated at £121/MWh.[35]
In May 2015, Ofgem awarded preferred bidder status to own and operate the electrical transmission assets of the wind farm to Transmission Capital Partners;[36] in early 2016 the sale of the assets (TC Westernmost Rough OFTO Ltd.) to a consortium of Transmission Capital Partners Limited Partnership and International Public Partnerships Limited was completed.[37] In early 2016 CWind was given a 20-year contract to maintain the TC Westernmost Rough OFTO's electrical transmission assets.[38]
In 2017, DONG Energy rebranded themselves as Ørsted as the acronym for DONG Energy - Danish Oil & Natural Gas - was seen as inappropriate for a company which had divested its entire oil and gas operations and was building an energy portfolio that was approaching 100% renewable.[39]
