The Lincs Wind Farm is a 270 MW 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 ...

off

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

on the east coast of

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 total cost of the project is estimated at £1 billion including electrical transmission links. The farm was completed in 2013. It is adjacent to the smaller

Lynn and Inner Dowsing Wind Farm The Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms are a pair of round 1 wind farms located in the North Sea, in the shallow waters at the entrance to The Wash off the coast of Lincolnshire, England. The wind farms were developed as a single unit after plannin ...

History

Centrica Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to consumers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is the largest su ...

acquired the Lincs Wind Farm project in 2004 from

Renewable Energy Systems The RES Group (Renewable Energy Systems) is a global renewable energy company which has been active in the renewable energy industry for over 30 years. Its core business is to develop, construct and operate large-scale, grid-connected renewable ...

, in 2008 the company obtained planning permission for the project. In December 2009 Ørsted A/S (then named DONG Energy) and

Siemens Project Ventures Siemens Financial Services (SFS) is a Division of Siemens. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. SFS offers international financing solutions in the business-to-business area. Financial Services serves Siemens as well as other ...

jointly acquired 50% of the project (25% share each) for £50 million, plus 50% of the capital cost of the project. Preparatory construction work for the development included the extension of the National Grid electricity substation at

Walpole, Norfolk __NOTOC__ Walpole is a civil parish in Norfolk, England. The parish includes the conjoined villages of Walpole St Andrew and Walpole St Peter. Walpole Highway and Walpole Cross Keys are separate civil parishes. The parish covers an area of , and ...

, which began in April 2009. In June 2010 Siemens obtained the contract for the offshore electrical substation (£101 million). Transmission cables from offshore to onshore

electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and ...

s were installed in 2010–2011. Construction of the offshore facilities of the wind farm began in 2011, with the installation of the offshore

electricity substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and ...

foundations. The

Port of Hull The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally cond ...

was selected as one of the logistics bases for the wind farm turbine installation, supplying wind tower transition pieces. Jack-up barge ''JB114'' arriving at the port in March 2012.

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 ...

was also used as a base for the wind farm installation. Construction of the offshore 33 kV to 132 kV substation (structure sub-contracted to McNulty Offshore Construction/ Atkins PLC.) and of the onshore 132 kV to 400 kV substation was completed by April 2012. In August 2011, the consortia of Ørsted, Siemens, and Centrica began to seek financing for the £1 billion project, committing to providing £166.7, £75 and £333.3 million respectively (£575 million total). In June 2012 the consortia obtained financing for the project with £425 million of

nonrecourse debt Nonrecourse debt or a nonrecourse loan (sometimes hyphenated as non-recourse) is a secured loan (debt) that is secured by a pledge of collateral, typically real property, but for which the borrower is not personally liable. If the borrower defaul ...

facilities provided from a consortium of 10 banks. Approximately 75% of the project cost was for the wind farm installation, the remainder for the high voltage electricity transmission link. Construction began in 2010; installation of the 75-monopile tower foundation by

MT Højgaard MT Højgaard Group is one of the leading construction and civil engineering companies in the Nordic countries. The Group works with customers throughout Denmark and in multiple countries overseas. The company was founded in 2001, when Højgaard & ...

was completed by June 2012, with the underwater installation phase completed by September 2012. The first generator had been installed by 14 July 2012. The wind farm was scheduled to become operational in the second half of 2012, and be complete by 2013: the final turbine was installed by March 2013; and the wind farm officially opened by Deputy Prime Minister

Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicepr ...

in August 2013, with commissioning complete in September 2013. The license for the electrical transmission link was awarded to TC Lincs OFTO Limited for £308 million in late 2014.

Technical description

The scheme has 250 MW of generating capacity, with an additional 20 MW of turbine generating capacity constructed within the nearby Lynn Wind Farm and Dowsing Wind Farm but connected to the Lincs project transmission system. The project uses 75 three blade 3.6 MW Siemens wind turbines. The wind turbines have rotor diameter machines with blades with a hub height of on cylindrical steel towers. The turbines were installed in water depth, with a spacing of approximately within a wind farm. Transmission of electrical power to land is by 145 kV cables supplied by

Nexans Nexans S.A. is a global company in the cable and optical fiber industry headquartered in Paris, France. The group is active in four main business areas: buildings and territories (construction, local infrastructure, smart cities / grids, e-mobil ...

. Transmission voltage is 132 kV to land, being increased to 400 kV at Walpole substation for grid connection. The operation and maintenance base for the wind farm is based at

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

. As at 2019, the windfarm has a rolling capacity factor of 39%. 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 £166/MWh. The wind farm has an expected lifespan of 40 years, with electrical equipment and wind turbines expected to be replaced after 20 years. After the end of the project's lifespan the farm is to be decommissioned, including removal of turbines and electrical equipment, and removal of offshore foundations or cut off to

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

level or lower. Connecting cables are not scheduled to be removed.

Notes

References

Sources

;Centrica * Statement for main wind farm area. ** Statement for 6 additional turbines of 20 MW within Lynn & Inner Dowsing farm area. * Project timeline and turbine locations (proposed). * ;Other * {{East Midlands powerstations Offshore wind farms in the North Sea Wind farms in England Skegness Ørsted (company) wind farms Round 2 offshore wind farms Buildings and structures in Lincolnshire Lincolnshire coast 2013 establishments in England Energy infrastructure completed in 2013

History

Technical description

See also

Notes

References

Sources