Walney Wind Farms are a group of offshore wind farms west of Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria, in the Irish Sea, England. The group, operated by ØrstedThe World's Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Is Here
''fortune.com'', 6 September 2018. Accessed: 6 September 2018. (formerly Dong Energy), consists of Walney Phase 1, Phase 2 and the Walney Extension. The extension has a capacity of 659 MW and it was the world's second largest offshore wind farm in 2018. The wind farms were developed by Walney (UK) Offshore Windfarms Limited, a partnership between

DONG Energy Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Persons *Queen Dong (1623–1681), princes ...

and Scottish and Southern Energy. The farms, which are immediately northwest of the West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm and west of

Ormonde Wind Farm The Ormonde Wind Farm is a wind farm west of Barrow-in-Furness in the Irish Sea. The wind farm covers an area of . It has a total capacity of 150 MW and is expected to produce around 500 GWh of electricity per year. Planning Original ...

, are in water depths ranging from 19m to 23m and cover an area of approximately 73 km². Both of the first phases have 51 turbines giving a nameplate capacity of 367 MW. Until September 2012 it was the world's largest operational offshore wind farm, and regained this title when the expansion completed in September 2018.World's biggest offshore wind farm opens off Britain as new minister admits high cost
''The Telegraph'', 9 February 2012. Accessed: 9 February 2012. The first two phases were expected to generate about 1,300 GW·h/year of electricity, with a load factor of 43%. The Walney Extension opened in September 2018 with a further 87 turbines capable of generating 659 megawatts.Walney Extension - 4C Offshore
, 30 June 2018. Accessed: 8 September 2018.

Development phases

Construction

In 2004 DONG Energy was awarded a 50-year lease from The Crown Estate to develop a wind farm off Walney Island, as part of the second UK offshore wind farm tendering process known as "Round 2". The farm was constructed sequentially in two phases with overlapping installation activities to reduce the overall construction timeframe. The project involved constructing the wind turbines and their foundations, building two offshore substations and installing two undersea power cables, one for each phase, and two short onshore cables to connect to two existing 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 for connection into the UK National Grid. A cable was laid by Stemat Spirit. Phase 1 connects to a substation at Heysham and Phase 2 connects to substation at

Stanah Thornton-Cleveleys is a conurbation consisting of the village of Thornton and the town of Cleveleys. The two settlements formed a joint urban district from 1927 until 1974, before becoming part of Wyre. The two settlements constitute part of ...

, south of Fleetwood. Both undersea cables pass close by Barrow Wind Farm. All the construction work was expected to take less than 2 years, with both phases operational by the end of 2011. On 11 July 2011 Phase 1 became operational, comprising 51 turbines with an installed capacity of 183.6 MW. Its levelised cost has been estimated at £120/MWh. Walney 2 began sending power to the grid on 1 November 2011. In February 2012, DONG Energy claimed to have installed the 51 turbines in Walney 2 in 5 months and 14 days, including monopiles and complete turbines; about 3.25 days per turbine. Walney 1 took 7 months. The improvement is due to commonality of projects and resources. The wind farm was officially opened on 9 February 2012 by the new energy secretary, Ed Davey, MP, although the last of the 51 turbines in Walney 2 were only activated in April 2012.

Walney Extension

In November 2014 DONG Energy was given development consent for an extension to the Walney offshore wind farm. The development consent allowed a maximum of 207 turbines to be added to the existing 102 turbines. The maximum generating capacity of the extension was said to be 750 MW although DONG was reported to be proceeding with a project based around 660 MW. Offshore construction began in 2017, onshore support construction having started in 2015. In 2015 DONG chose the 8 MW

Vestas V164 The Vestas V164 is a three-bladed offshore wind turbine, produced by Vestas, with a nameplate capacity of up to 10 megawatts, a world record. Vestas revealed the V164's design in 2011 with the first prototype unit operated at Østerild in n ...

for Phase 1, and the 7 MW Siemens gearless turbine for Phase 2. In April 2018, the final turbine of the 87 installed for Phase 1 was completed, with full operation commencing in September 2018.

Incidents

In 2014 a dive vessel, owned by Danish firm Offshore Marine Services, was carrying out routine inspection work when an anchor cable broke and the ship hit one of 102 turbines installed at the Walney Offshore Wind Farm. The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency surveyed the crash site and reported that a surface sheen stretching 33 feet wide and 0.7 nautical miles long was trailing the vessel. The agency said that, unlike heavier crude oil, the marine engine oil should evaporate or disperse naturally.

References

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