Robin Rigg Wind Farm, Scotland's first
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 ...
, was constructed by
E.ON at Robin Rigg in the
Solway Firth
The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...
, a sandbank midway between the
Galloway
Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway.
A native or ...
and
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...
n coasts. The windfarm first generated power for test purposes on 9 September 2009. The wind farm was completed on 20 April 2010.
Description
60 Vestas V90-3MW
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s were installed, with an offshore
electrical substation.
Prysmian provided two 132 kV export cables each 12.5 km long to connect the wind farm to the on-shore substation. Two units were subsequently decommissioned in 2015 due to failures during installation. The 174 MW development provides enough electricity for around 117,000 households.
The windfarm employs around 40 people, most of whom are local to the area. It is operated from the Port of
Workington
Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207.
Locat ...
. Local suppliers are used whenever possible, providing services including vessel management, fabrication, environmental monitoring, catering, industrial cleaning, inspection services and printing.
In the first year of commercial operation the wind farm was available to operate for over 98% of the time. 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 £135/MWh.
In March 2011 Robin Rigg became the first offshore wind farm to enter the
OFTO regime with the two offshore and onshore export cables and the onshore 132kV substation being bought by Transmission Capital and Amber Infrastructure.
Legal case
The wind farm was the subject of a legal case decided by the
UK Supreme Court in 2017, which arose because certain of the foundation structures failed shortly after completion of the project. These had been designed and installed by Danish company
MT Højgaard A/S under a contract awarded by
E.ON. The case was legally significant because a requirement that the structures "be designed with a lifetime of 20 years" was contained within a Technical Requirements document which formed part of the contract, but on appeal
Jackson JL considered this requirement "too slender a thread" upon which to hang MT Hojgaard's liability in the light of other, inconsistent, parts of the specification, and because E.ON had specified a requirement that they comply with offshore standard J101, an international standard for the design of offshore wind turbine structures produced by the technical standards company
DNV
DNV (formerly DNV GL) is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. The company currently has about 12,000 employees and 350 offices operating in more than 100 countries, and provides serv ...
. The J101 standard contained a calculation error; although MT Hojgaard aimed to comply with the standard as-published, their design was not sufficiently robust to meet the 20-year lifetime requirement and so the Supreme Court found they had breached the contract.
[Albou, E.]
On Shaky Ground: Contractual Law & the Robin Rigg Case
''Laywer Monthly'', published 16 October 2017, accessed 25 November 2022
See also
*
Wind power in Scotland
*
List of offshore wind farms
This article lists the largest offshore wind farms that are currently operational rated by nameplate capacity. It also lists the largest offshore wind farms currently under construction, the largest proposed offshore wind farms, and offshore w ...
*
List 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 offshore wind farms in the Irish Sea
References
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Dumfries and Galloway
Wind farms in Scotland
Offshore wind farms in the Irish Sea
E.ON
Round 1 offshore wind farms
Solway Firth
2010 establishments in Scotland
Energy infrastructure completed in 2010