Humber Gateway 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 ...

east of

Spurn Point Spurn is a narrow sand tidal island located off the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England that reaches into the North Sea and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It was a spit with a semi-permanent con ...

off the coast of

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a Unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

, 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 ...

; the wind farm is located in water depths around and covers an area of approximately . The wind farm became operational in June 2015. It was developed by Humber Wind Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of

E.ON UK E.ON UK is a British energy company and the largest supplier of energy and renewable electricity in the UK, following its acquisition of Npower. It is a subsidiary of E.ON of Germany and one of the Big Six energy suppliers. It was founded in ...

plc.; the wind farm consists of seventy-three 3 MW wind turbines, with the electrical cable making landfall at Easington, and connecting to the National Grid, at

Salt End Salt End or Saltend is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated on the north bank of the Humber Estuary just outside the Hull eastern boundary on the A1033 road. It forms part of the civi ...

, on the eastern outskirts of

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

. In 2020, the ownership of Humber Gateway was transferred to

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...

alongside E.ON's other renewables business.

History

In 2003 EON submitted a bid to the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priva ...

to develop a wind farm in the 'Greater Wash Strategic Area'; a planning application was submitted in 2008 for a 300 MW, £700 million, wind farm. Additional planning applications for onshore substation, and onshore underground cable were submitted in 2009/2008, and approved in 2010. The site was located over 8 km east of Easington, in an area roughly with a water depth of around , and approximately 15 km north-northeast from

Donna Nook Donna Nook is a point on the low-lying coast of north Lincolnshire, England, north of the village of North Somercotes and south of Grimsby. The area, a salt marsh, is used by a number of Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire for bombing pract ...

on the Lincolnshire coast. Cable connections were to make land fall at Easington and connect via about a 30 km underground cable connection with the National Grid near

(near Hull). Initial plans were for a 300 MW wind farm, with 42–83 turbines. The wind farm had an expected operational life of 40 years based on the length of the

lease, with possible turbine replacement after 20–25 years. Governmental planning approval for a 230 MW (77 turbine) wind farm was given in early 2011. In December 2011 E ON published plans for a 73 turbine, 219 MW wind farm, using

Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Uni ...

V112 3.0 MW turbines, with an initial completion date scheduled for spring 2015.

Contracts, design and construction

In 2012 CG (Avantha) was awarded the main contract for the design to installation of both onshore and offshore substations for the project. In early 2013 contract for the supply of turbine monopile foundations were split between

TAG Energy Solutions Offshore Structures (Britain) Ltd. is a marine offshore structure foundation manufacture based at Haverton Hill near Billingham on the north bank of the River Tees. The company was formed as a joint venture between Bladt Industries and EEW at ...

(UK) (16 foundations), with the remainder supplied by

Sif In Norse mythology, Sif (Old Norse: ) is a golden-haired goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century ...

(Netherlands).

ABB Group ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...

was contracted to supply 132kV submarine export cables in March 2012, the inter turbine cabling supply contract was awarded to

General Cable General Cable is an American multinational cable manufacturing company based in Highland Heights, Kentucky, with sales offices and manufacturing facilities in several countries. General Cable manufactures and distributes copper, aluminum, and o ...

subsidiary Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke Gmbh. in August 2012.

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 ...

was contracted to design and supply the about 1300t substation foundation structure and piles in March 2013. The first turbine foundation was installed in September 2013. In December 2013 two 600t offshore substations were delivered to the

Port of Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

for installation at the wind farm. By January 2014 the submarine export cables to the offshore transformer had been laid. The first turbine was installed mid 2014. Offshore substation installation was completed in late 2014. The wind farm first generated power in early 2015, with 58 of the turbines installed, and became fully operational by June 2015. The wind farm was formally opened by

Andrea Leadsom Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (; ' Salmon; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Northamptonshire since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Environ ...

(MP) 30 September 2015. 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 £147/MWh. In September 2015 ''Balfour Beatty Equitix Consortium'' (

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works ac ...

/ Equitix) became preferred bidder to own and operate the £162.9 million electricity export cable. The

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions ...

provides £82 million for the transmission.

Grimsby operations centre

In mid 2012 E ON submitted a planning application to build an operations and maintenance centre at the

Port of Grimsby The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. Sea trade out of Grimsby dates to at least the medieval period. The ''Grimsby Haven Company'' began dock development in the late 170 ...

, for the maintenance of the Humber Gateway wind farm. Construction firm ISG was awarded a £3 million contract to construct the centre in March 2013, including and warehouse and storage buildings. Construction was completed by September 2013. The centre was formally opened by

Eric Pickles Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar (UK Parliament co ...

on 1 August 2014.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

* * {{Yorkshire Powerstations Wind farms in England Offshore wind farms in the North Sea Round 2 offshore wind farms E.ON 2015 establishments in England Energy infrastructure completed in 2015