West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm (WoDS), occasionally also known as West Duddon 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 to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

located south west of

Walney Island Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. It is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned b ...

off the coast of

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

Iberdrola, Dong Energy order Siemens turbines for West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm
''RenewBL'', 27 June 2011. Accessed: 22 March 2012. in

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 ...

, in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

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 was developed by

Scottish Power Scottish Power is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola. ScottishPower is the distribution network operator for Central and Southern Scotland, Merseyside, Nor ...

and Ørsted A/S.

Location

The wind farm gets its name from a large sand bank uncovered at low water in the mouth of the estuary of the

River Duddon The Duddon is a river of north-west England. It rises at a point above sea level near the Three Shire Stone at the highest point of Wrynose Pass (). The river descends to the sea over a course of about before entering the Irish Sea at the Du ...

to the north of the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

Peninsula. The farm actually lies to the south west of the Duddon Sands and covers an area of approximately 67 km². It is situated in the vicinity of three other wind farms. It is to the south of the

Walney Wind Farm Walney Wind Farms are a group of offshore wind farms west of Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria, in the Irish Sea, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and ...

and Ormonde Wind Farm, and to the west of the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm.

Ownership

The project to develop the West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm was awarded in December 2003 as part of the Round 2 development programme. The project was awarded to Morecambe Wind Ltd, a partnership between

, Elsam, and Eurus Energy. Elsam, a Danish company, was later acquired by DONG Energy. By 2014 the windfarm was stated to be "a joint venture project between ScottishPower Renewables and Dong Energy".

Planning

The project included constructing the wind turbines and their foundations, building offshore substations, installing power cables both

undersea The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characterist ...

and onshore, as well as an extension to the existing onshore Electrical substation to house the equipment needed for connection into the UK National Grid. Cables were supplied by NKT, and are 82 km of 155 kV sea cables and 22 km land cables, at a price of DKK 600 million.NKT wind sea cable order for Scottish wind farm
''Metal Industry'', 1 August 2011. Accessed: 11 December 2011. The wind farm planning application was filed in April 2006 and consent was granted in September 2008. The application was for between 83 and 139

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 ...

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 500 MW. However permission was granted for only 108 turbines due to geological siting issues. This will provide up to 389 MW of power.

Construction

The 108

Siemens Wind Power 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'', ''E ...

3.6 MW geared turbines cost €700 million installed, bringing the cost per turbine to €6.5m, or €1.8m per MW. Adding maintenance, transformator platform and cabling to shore brings the cost to £1.6 billion.The cost of an offshore wind turbine
''Hub North'', 4 July 2011. Accessed: 22 March 2012. Quote: "This makes the price of one of Siemens turbines approx. 6.5 million euros, corresponding to 48.5 million kr or 13.4 million kr per MW"
''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...

'', 27 June 2011. Accessed: 22 March 2012. A cable was laid by

Stemat Spirit The ''Spirit'' is a cable laying vessel (CLV). She is owned by Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. She is a Bureau Veritas Hull Mach AUT UMS Dynapos AM/AT R Special Service Workboat Class. The vessel has a 6-point mooring system (using her DP2 s ...

, shown in TV documentary

Mighty Ships ''Mighty Ships'' is a documentary television program produced by Exploration Production Inc. in Canada and aired on Discovery Channel Canada and also broadcast around the world. Each episode of the series follows a particular sea-going vessel ...

. The project has a 5-year warranty. Electrical work started in 2012, turbines installed in 2013, and operating in 2014.Stubben, Charlotte
Iberdrola reveals how much Siemens receives on major turbine deal
''Metal Supply'', 28 June 2011. Accessed: 22 March 2012. The wind farm began generating power on 28 January 2014 when four turbines were connected to the grid. The final turbine was installed in June 2014. The wind farm was officially inaugurated by the

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change was a British government cabinet position from 2008 to 2016. The Department of Energy and Climate Change was created on 3 October 2008 when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown ...

Ed Davey Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 ...

on 30 October 2014.

References

External links

West of Duddon Sands
{{North West Power Stations Wind farms in England Offshore wind farms in the Irish Sea Round 2 offshore wind farms Ørsted (company) wind farms Energy infrastructure completed in 2014 2014 establishments in England