Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is an offshore

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park 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 turbines covering an exten ...

32 km north of

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

off the coast of

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is owned by Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited (DOW), a subsidiary of

Equinor Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renew ...

Masdar Masdar (Arabic: مصدر‎), also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is an Emirati state-owned renewable energy company. It was founded and chaired by Sultan Al Jaber in 2006 as a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company. The compan ...

and

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is ac ...

. The site is a relatively flat area of seabed between the Cromer Knoll and Inner Cromer Knoll sandbanks and is one of the furthest offshore sites around the UK. The project included constructing the wind turbines and their

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

, building an offshore substation and an onshore substation at Necton, installing power cables both undersea and onshore, as well as connection to the UK National Grid. This work is estimated to have cost in the region of £1.5bn. The wind farm was fully commissioned in October 2017. The estimated annual production is 1.7 TWh which corresponds to 410,000 homes each using 4,100 kWh/yr. With a nameplate capacity (peak power) of 402 MW this corresponds to a capacity factor of 48%, or an average power of approximately 200 MW.

Planning

The project was originally developed by Warwick Energy Limited, who set up a subsidiary called Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited. The wind farm planning application was filed in April 2009. The application was for between 56 and 168

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. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

depending on final chosen design with a

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,MW. In July 2012 the government gave planning approval for Warwick Energy to construct a wind farm to the capacity of 560MW. In October 2012

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. In th ...

and

acquired the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm project through the acquisition of all shares from Warwick Energy. A review of the project was undertaken after the project was acquired by Statoil and Statkraft, and in December 2013 it was announced that the capacity of the wind farm would be reduced from 560MW to 402MW. In January 2014 it was announced that two contracts had been awarded to

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

for the engineering, supply, assembly, commissioning and service of 67 6MW wind turbines for the project. The rotor diameter of this turbine is 154 m, the hub height is 110 m and the highest point of the rotor is 187 m. Statoil and Statkraft made the final investment decision on 1 July 2014 and announced that they would proceed with the project. In September 2014 it was announced that

had purchased 35%, half of Statoil's shares, of Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited. Statoil now holds a 35% share, Masdar a 35% share and Statkraft a 30% share in Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited.

Construction

Work began onshore in Norfolk to install the underground cables and construct the substations on March 26, 2015. The turbine foundations were laid in 2016, with turbine installation occurring in 2017, the first came on line in early February 2017 and last completed by September 2017. Final commissioning occurred in October 2017.

Service and maintenance

In late 2014 the Danish company Esvagt was awarded a 5-year contract for service and maintenance. The Service Operation Vessel (SOV) '' Esvagt Njord'' has handled the task, and as the first of this kind on a British offshore wind farm, all facilities like workshops, storage facilities and accommodation for up to 40 wind turbine technicians from

and

are located on the ship. The wind turbine technicians live on the ship and walk to work on the wind turbines via the Norwegian UpTime gangway system. The vessel was delivered to

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

on 6 September 2016, from where it is operating.

References

External links

Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm
{{East of England powerstations Wind farms in England Offshore wind farms in the North Sea Round 2 offshore wind farms Energy infrastructure completed in 2017 2017 establishments in England