Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is an 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 Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

32 km north of

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

off the coast of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is owned by Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited (DOW), a subsidiary of

Equinor Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. I ...

Masdar Masdar,(Arabic:مصدر‎), also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is a UAE-government owned renewable energy company based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Masdar is a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company and was founded by ...

and

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower company, fully owned by the Norwegian state. The Statkraft Group is a generator of renewable energy, as well as Norway’s largest and the Nordic region's third largest energy producer. Statkraft develops and generates ...

. The site is a relatively flat area of seabed between the Cromer Knoll and Inner Cromer Knoll sandbanks and is one of the furthest offshore sites around the UK. The project included constructing the wind turbines and their

foundations Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

, building an offshore substation and an onshore substation at

Necton Necton is a village situated on a turning off the A47 main road between Swaffham and East Dereham in the Breckland district of mid-Norfolk. As at the 2001 census it had a population of 1,865 residents and an area of , increasing to a population ...

, installing power cables both undersea and onshore, as well as connection to the

UK National Grid In the electricity sector in the United Kingdom, the National Grid is the high-voltage electric power transmission Grid (electricity), network serving Great Britain, connecting power stations and major Electrical substation, substations and ensur ...

. This work is estimated to have cost in the region of £1.5bn. The wind farm was fully commissioned in October 2017. The estimated annual production is 1.7 TWh which corresponds to 410,000 homes each using 4,100 kWh/yr. With a nameplate capacity (peak power) of 402 MW this corresponds to a capacity factor of 48%, or an average power of approximately 200 MW.

Planning

The project was originally developed by Warwick Energy Limited, who set up a subsidiary called Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited. The wind farm planning application was filed in April 2009. The application was for between 56 and 168

turbines A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful Work (physics), work. The work produced by a turbine can be used ...

depending on final chosen design with a

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station,

of 560 MW. In July 2012 the government gave planning approval for Warwick Energy to construct a wind farm to the capacity of 560MW. In October 2012

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state owned enterprise, state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with ad ...

and

acquired the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm project through the acquisition of all shares from Warwick Energy. A review of the project was undertaken after the project was acquired by Statoil and Statkraft, and in December 2013 it was announced that the capacity of the wind farm would be reduced from 560MW to 402MW. In January 2014 it was announced that two contracts had been awarded to

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

for the engineering, supply, assembly, commissioning and service of 67 6MW wind turbines for the project. The rotor diameter of this turbine is 154 m, the hub height is 110 m and the highest point of the rotor is 187 m. Statoil and Statkraft made the final investment decision on 1 July 2014 and announced that they would proceed with the project. In September 2014 it was announced that

had purchased 35%, half of Statoil's shares, of Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited. Statoil now holds a 35% share, Masdar a 35% share and Statkraft a 30% share in Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited.

Construction

Work began onshore in Norfolk to install the underground cables and construct the substations on March 26, 2015. The turbine foundations were laid in 2016, with turbine installation occurring in 2017, the first came on line in early February 2017 and last completed by September 2017. Final commissioning occurred in October 2017.

Service and maintenance

In late 2014 the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

company

Esvagt Esvagt is Danish offshore shipping company providing safety and support at sea. History Esvagt was founded in 1981. It supports the offshore wind and oil and gas industries with a wide range of specialised services: standby, emergency response an ...

was awarded a 5-year contract for service and maintenance. The Service Operation Vessel (SOV)

Esvagt Njord Esvagt is Danish offshore shipping company providing safety and support at sea. History Esvagt was founded in 1981. It supports the offshore wind and oil and gas industries with a wide range of specialised services: standby, emergency response an ...

will handle the task, and as the first of this kind on a British offshore wind farm, all facilities like workshops, storage facilities and accommodation for up to 40 wind turbine technicians from

and

will be located on the ship. The wind turbine technicians will live on the ship and walk to work on the wind turbines via the Norwegian UpTime gangway system. The vessel was delivered to

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

on 6 September 2016, from where it is operating. In November 2017 Ryan Burnham was voted by his peers as the face of Equinor for technicians.

References

External links

Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm
{{East of England powerstations Wind farms in England Offshore wind farms in the North Sea Round 2 offshore wind farms Energy infrastructure completed in 2017 2017 establishments in England