Barrow Offshore Wind
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The Barrow Offshore Wind Farm is a 30 turbine 90MW capacity offshore
wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
in the East Irish Sea approximately south west of
Walney Island Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. It is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned b ...
, near
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...
, 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. Barrow (4C Offshore) ''Developers/Owners/Operators'' A planning application was submitted in 2001, and planning consent given in March 2003; 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. The estimated cost of developing the project was £100million, of which £10million was provided by a UK government grant. In 2004 Centrica and Ørsted bought the Statkraft stake, forming a 50:50 joint venture in the development. The initial Warwick Energy proposal was for a 30 turbine wind farm 7 km southwest of
Walney Island Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. It is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned b ...
(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 Heysham ( ) is a coastal town in Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two nuclear power stations. Demography Administratively, Heysham is part of th ...
, with connection to the mainland electrical grid at an extension to an existing
electricity substation A substation is a part of an electrical Electricity generation, generation, electric power transmission, transmission, and electric power distribution, distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perf ...
south of
Heysham nuclear power station Heysham nuclear power station is operated by EDF Energy in Heysham, Lancashire, England. The site is divided into two separately-managed nuclear power stations, Heysham 1 and Heysham 2, both with two reactors of the advanced gas-cooled reactor ...
. 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.


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. 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 Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
's shipyard in Belfast. In exceptions where pile driving of monopile foundations failed, drilling was used to form the monopile foundations. IEC 1A class Vestas V90-3.0MW wind turbines were used, mounted on a 75m tower connected to monopiles supplied by a Sif/Smulders joint venture. 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 Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...
(transformer), Sif/Smulders (superstructure and monopile) and designed by KBR and
Mott MacDonald The Mott MacDonald Group is a consultancy headquartered in the United Kingdom. It employs 16,000 staff in 150 countries. Mott MacDonald is one of the largest employee-owned companies in the world. It was established in 1989 by the merger of M ...
. Cables were supplied by Prysmian (33kV) and Nexans (132kV). Construction of the wind farm was completed in June 2006 with the first power generated in March 2006. The operator is ''Barrow Offshore Wind Limited'', owned by Centrica and Ørsted.


Operation

Since 2008 (to 2012) the farm operated at between 30 and 40%
capacity factor The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the theoretical maximum electrical energy output over that period. The theoretical maximum energy output of a given installation is def ...
, generating between 240 and 320 GWh of electrical energy per year. Its
levelised cost The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), or levelized cost of energy, is a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a generator over its lifetime. It is used for investment planning and to compare different methods ...
has been estimated at £87/MWh. 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. In 2014 Ørsted acquired Centrica's 50% holding in the wind farm.


See also

* Ormonde Wind Farm,
Walney Wind Farm Walney Wind Farms are a group of offshore wind farms west of Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria, in the Irish Sea, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and ...
,
West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm (WoDS), occasionally also known as West Duddon Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm located south west of Walney Island off the coast of Barrow-in-FurnessList of offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom StrikeOpt This is a list of offshore wind farms within the national maritime boundaries of the United Kingdom. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm; it is usually related to the name of the ...
*
List of tallest buildings and structures in Barrow-in-Furness This list of the tallest buildings and structures in borough of Barrow-in-Furness ranks buildings in the city by height. There are a diverse range of tall structures within the borough, the tallest of which being the wind farms of Ormonde Wind ...


References


Sources

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External links

* {{Authority control Offshore wind farms in the Irish Sea Wind farms in England Ørsted (company) wind farms Buildings and structures in Cumbria
Offshore Wind Farm Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of c ...
Round 1 offshore wind farms Power stations in North West England 2006 establishments in England Energy infrastructure completed in 2006