Westermost Rough offshore wind farm achieves full power output

DONG Energy has announced that the 210 MW Westermost Rough offshore wind project in UK has achieved full power output.

Westermost Rough is a joint venture between DONG Energy (50%) and its partners Marubeni Corporation (25%) and the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) (25%).

Westermost Rough is capable of generating up to 210 MW of electricity, enough to meet the annual electricity demands of well over 150,000 UK homes. The project has been made up of 35 Siemens 6 MW (megawatt) turbines. The 6MW machine has the biggest capacity of any wind turbine in use anywhere in the world, and Westermost Rough is the first wind farm to use the 6MW turbine on a large scale. The project has a operational life of 20 years.

The offshore wind farm is one of the last Round 2 projects. The facilities are situated 8 km off the Yorkshire Coast, east of Hull.

Construction off the wind farm represents a total investment of approximately £800 million (US$1.233 billion) including the construction of the transmission assets (inter-array and export cables, and the offshore substation).

Duncan Clark, Programme Director for Westermost Rough at DONG Energy, said:

“Westermost Rough achieving full power output is a hugely significant moment for the project. This is the first offshore wind farm in the world to use the Siemens 6MW turbines, which is an important step in reducing the cost of energy from offshore wind."

"The offshore construction programme has seen over 900 people employed in dozens of companies, and reaching full power production is a proud moment for all involved and a credit to their skills and hard work."

"The focus for Westermost Rough now is to safely finish final testing and ensure that the entire facility is handed over to the operations team in top condition, so that clean, green energy can continue to be delivered to the UK grid for the expected life of up to 25 years."