Westermost Rough is Ørsted’s third largest wind farm and on the east coast of England. It produces 210 MW of renewable wind power and will operate for 25 years through 2040.
Where is the Westermost Rough Wind farm?
The wind farm site is 8 km away from Withernsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, a center for town activity amongst the villages on the Holderness coast.
The farm connects to the national grid via underground cables to the new Ferndale Substation. The Ferndale Substation will feed it into the national grid.
The wind farm’s original maintenance base and building were up for a national building award in 2015. The Ørsted Grimsby maintenance base then expanded in 2019 to accommodate the operations and maintenance of Ørsted’s wind farms. Namely, Lincs, Race Bank, Gunfleet Sands, and Westermost Rough.
The wind farm’s operations base in 2015 was also the first to operate the 6 MW Siemens wind turbines.
The east coast hub at the Grimsby Royal dock is currently the most extensive operations and maintenance base for wind farms worldwide.
What are the components of the project?
The project has only one offshore substation featuring auxiliary transformers, nine switchgears, and two main transformers.
Ørsted contracted Nexans to supply the medium voltage submarine cables. In contrast, the LS cable and system were responsible for delivering the extra-high voltage and submarine cables.
The export cables land at Tunstall and then onward to the Ferndale substation.
The steel manufacturer Bladt Industries built 31,330 tonnes of monopiles and transition pieces and delivered them to the site.
Project developers added additional protection to mitigate the degradation of the array cables in 2021. The facility will last until 2040, or 25 years.
Who owns Westermost Rough Wind Farm?
The ownership remains with the Crown Estate, which gave the lease to the joint venture of the project owners.
Westermost Rough offshore wind farm is a joint venture between Ørsted (formerly DONG energy), UK Green Investment Bank, and Marubeni Corporation. The Crown Estate’s lease for £240 million is split by 50:25:25 equity participation in the project. As part of the partnership with Ørsted, UK Green Investment Bank and Marubeni corporation placed £500 million to finance the project.
| Westermost Rough Owner | Share |
|---|---|
| Orsted | 50% |
| UK Green Investment Bank | 25% |
| Marubeni | 25% |
The transmission assets of the farm were transferred to Transmission Capital Limited Partnership and International Public Partnerships Limited in February 2016. The transaction closed in 2015 after a £156.7 million deal.
How large is the Westermost Rough offshore wind farm project?
The project scale reached 35 square kilometers, roughly 1,000 meters between each turbine installation.
Is it a fixed or floating foundation?
The fixed monopile foundations used in the project are at least 500 tonnes each. The heaviest weight is 850 tonnes, with a 6.5 metre diameter supporting the tower and turbine.
When was the first power of Westermost Rough Wind Farm?
The wind farm became fully operational in May 2015, and onshore construction works began in 2013, a year before offshore construction in 2014.
How much total energy does the project produce?
After nearly seven years of operation, the farm had produced 5,944 gigawatt-hours, 2.63% of all clean electricity produced in the UK since they started collecting data. This is the equivalent of 874 GWh per year delivered. With 210 MW of capacity, the project is 18th in the UK in installed capacity amongst all offshore wind farms.
Westermost Rough Turbines
The project has 35 turbines installed on the site. Siemens developed and constructed all the turbines.
Westermost Rough was the first offshore wind farm to operate the Siemens SWT-6.0-154 wind turbines on a large scale. With a swept area of 18,600 square meters, the turbine towers at 154 meters for its rotor diameter.
How much power per turbine?
Each turbine has an installed capacity of 6 MW, or 210 MW of nameplate capacity for the wind farm. Based on the average 874 GWh of the farm, a raw estimate for each turbine is that each turbine produces 24 GWh per year.