Humber Gateway 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 ...

east of

Spurn Point Spurn is a narrow sand tidal island located off the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England that reaches into the North Sea and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It was a spit with a semi-permanent co ...

off the coast of

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

, 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 ...

; the wind farm is located in water depths around and covers an area of approximately . The wind farm became operational in June 2015. It was developed by Humber Wind Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of

E.ON UK E.ON UK is a British energy company and one of the largest suppliers of energy in the UK, following its acquisition of Npower. It is a subsidiary of E.ON of Germany and one of the Big Six energy suppliers. It was founded in 1989 as Powergen, ...

plc.; the wind farm consists of seventy-three 3 MW wind turbines, with the electrical cable making landfall at Easington, and connecting to the National Grid, at

Salt End Salt End or Saltend is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated on the north bank of the Humber Estuary just outside the Kingston upon Hull, Hull eastern boundary on the A ...

, on the eastern outskirts of

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...

. In 2020, the ownership of Humber Gateway was transferred to

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first ...

alongside E.ON's other renewables business.

History

In 2003 EON submitted a bid to the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priva ...

to develop a wind farm in the 'Greater Wash Strategic Area'; a planning application was submitted in 2008 for a 300 MW, £700 million, wind farm. Additional planning applications for onshore substation, and onshore underground cable were submitted in 2009/2008, and approved in 2010. The site was located over 8 km east of Easington, in an area roughly with a water depth of around , and approximately 15 km north-northeast from

Donna Nook Donna Nook is a point on the low-lying coast of north Lincolnshire, England, north of the village of North Somercotes and south of Great Grimsby, Grimsby. The area, a salt marsh, is used by a number of Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire fo ...

on the Lincolnshire coast. Cable connections were to make land fall at Easington and connect via about a 30 km underground cable connection with the National Grid near

(near

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

). Initial plans were for a 300 MW wind farm, with 42–83 turbines. The wind farm had an expected operational life of 40 years based on the length of the

lease, with possible turbine replacement after 20–25 years. Governmental planning approval for a 230 MW (77 turbine) wind farm was given in early 2011. In December 2011 E ON published plans for a 73 turbine, 219 MW wind farm, using

Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...

V112 3.0 MW turbines, with an initial completion date scheduled for spring 2015.

Contracts, design and construction

In 2012 CG (Avantha) was awarded the main contract for the design to installation of both onshore and offshore substations for the project. In early 2013 contract for the supply of turbine monopile foundations were split between TAG Energy Solutions (UK) (16 foundations), with the remainder supplied by

Sif In Norse mythology, Sif is a golden-haired goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturl ...

(Netherlands).

ABB Group ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Exch ...

was contracted to supply 132kV submarine export cables in March 2012, the inter turbine cabling supply contract was awarded to

General Cable General Cable is an American multinational cable manufacturing company based in Highland Heights, Kentucky, Highland Heights, Kentucky, with sales offices and manufacturing facilities in several countries. General Cable manufactures and distribu ...

subsidiary Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke Gmbh. in August 2012.

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff Holdings plc is a British shipbuilding and Metal fabrication, fabrication company headquartered in London with sites in Belfast, Arnish yard, Arnish, Appledore, Torridge, Appledore and Methil. It specialises in ship repair, ship ...

was contracted to design and supply the about 1300t substation foundation structure and piles in March 2013. The first turbine foundation was installed in September 2013. In December 2013 two 600t offshore substations were delivered to the

Port of Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

for installation at the wind farm. By January 2014 the submarine export cables to the offshore transformer had been laid. The first turbine was installed mid 2014. Offshore substation installation was completed in late 2014. The wind farm first generated power in early 2015, with 58 of the turbines installed, and became fully operational by June 2015. The wind farm was formally opened by

Andrea Leadsom Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (; ; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician who served in various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak between 2014 and 2024. A member of the Co ...

(MP) 30 September 2015. Its

levelised cost The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) 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 of electricity generation on a ...

has been estimated at £147/MWh. In September 2015 ''Balfour Beatty Equitix Consortium'' (

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is active ac ...

/ Equitix) became preferred bidder to own and operate the £162.9 million electricity export cable. The

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

provides £82 million for the transmission.

Grimsby operations centre

In mid 2012 E ON submitted a planning application to build an operations and maintenance centre at the

Port of Grimsby The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. Sea trade out of Grimsby dates to at least the medieval period. The ''Grimsby Haven Company'' began dock development in the late 1700 ...

, for the maintenance of the Humber Gateway wind farm. Construction firm ISG was awarded a £3 million contract to construct the centre in March 2013, including and warehouse and storage buildings. Construction was completed by September 2013. The centre was formally opened by

Eric Pickles Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 United ...

on 1 August 2014.

Notes

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* * {{Yorkshire Powerstations Wind farms in England Offshore wind farms in the North Sea Round 2 offshore wind farms E.ON 2015 establishments in England Energy infrastructure completed in 2015