Walney Wind Farms are a group of 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 ...

s 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. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is part of Barrow-in-Furness, sepa ...

off the coast of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

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 ...

, in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

. 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 Person names Surnames * Dǒng (surna ...

and

Scottish and Southern Energy SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. SSE operates in the United Kingdom a ...

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

giving a

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,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

capable of generating 659 megawatts.Walney Extension - 4C Offshore
, 30 June 2018. Accessed: 8 September 2018. And the area reaches 145 km².

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 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 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 substations for connection into the UK National Grid. A cable was laid by Stemat Spirit. Phase 1 connects to a substation at

Heysham Heysham ( ) is a coastal village in the Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two nuclear power stations. History Of historic ...

and Phase 2 connects to substation at Stanah, south of

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

. 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 Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, leader of the Liberal Democrat party since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State ...

, 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 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

External links