Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm

Race Bank is the 7th largest offshore wind farm in the UK, commissioned in 2018 with a 573 MW nameplate capacity. Dogger Bank Wind Farm has 91 Siemens Gamesa turbines rated 6 MW of wind power each.

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Where is the Race Bank Offshore Wind farm?

Race Bank wind farm is off the cost of Grimsby, and near the Lincs wind farm. The transmission cables make landfall between Boston and King's Lynn at the Walpole Substation

The site is 28 km to the east of Chapel St Leonards in the North Sea and 27 km off the north Norfolk coast of England.

What are the components of the project?

Race Bank project completed the onshore and offshore substations one year before the first power in 2017. Alstom Grid, a GE subsidiary, developed an automated digital substation management system. This added situational awareness and efficient asset management at Race Bank.

JDR supplied the 36 kV inter-array cables connecting the turbines. At the same time, NKT provided the export 220 kV cables that transport the electricity from the offshore substation for 71 kilometers to the shore and the onshore substation. The export cables connect to the grid via the substation at Walpole, Norfolk.

The onshore construction began in 2015, and a year afterward, the offshore construction began in 2016.

One of the project’s firsts is its production of 1 terawatt-hour electricity before commissioning. Ørsted also acquired a new service operation vessel that can stay up to 28 days at sea and increase the capability of the operations and maintenance team.

The Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull, England produced 180 of Race Bank’s turbines.

Who owns Race Bank Offshore wind project?

Race Bank was awarded in 2004 with a 50-year lease to Centrica by the Crown Estate via Round 2 leasing. Centrica finished the design phase and obtained planning consent approval in 2012. In December 2013, Centrica announced that it would sell no less than its entire stake in the project to Ørsted (formerly DONG energy) for the value of £50 million. The transaction was made after Centrica was unable to secure a CFD subsidy in November of the same year. In 2014, Ørsted was included in the renewable obligation scheme of the UK government, thus enabling the project to move forward with subsidies. The company afterwards committed to the project construction. Ørsted varied the plans as well, and changed the three offshore substations to two and increased the capacity. Today, the Race bank project is a consortium across four groups-- Ørsted, Macquarie european infrastructure fund, Macquarie Capital, and Sumitomo corporation; for a sharing of 50% - 25% - 12.5% - 12.5% amongst the partners. The transmission assets were sold to Diamond Transmission Partners in 2019, for the amount of £472.5m in 2019.

The Crown Estate awarded the project in 2004 with a 50-year lease to Centrica via Round 2 leasing. Centrica finished the design phase and obtained planning consent approval in 2012.

In December 2013, Centrica announced that it would sell no less than its entire stake in the project to Ørsted (formerly DONG energy) for £50 million. Ørsted made the transaction after Centrica could not secure a CFD subsidy in November of the same year.

Ørsted varied the plans, changed the three offshore substations to two, and increased the capacity. The project moved forward with subsidies in 2014 after the UK Government included Ørsted in their renewable obligation scheme. The company afterward committed to the project construction.

Today, the Race Rank project is a consortium across four groups: Ørsted, Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund, Macquarie Capital, and Sumitomo corporation. The partners split Race Bank 50% – 25% – 12.5% – 12.5%, respectively.

The transmission assets were sold to Diamond Transmission Partners 2019 for £472.5m in 2019.

How large is the Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm project?

The wind farm encompasses 75 square kilometers of water in the North Sea.

When was the first power of Race Bank Farm?

The wind farm was commissioned in February 2018; one year prior, Race Bank installed the first turbines in May 2017, and Race Bank generated the first power in the same month.

How much energy does the project produce?

The project has an installed capacity of 573 MW and has produced 8,973 GWh of green energy over four years for up to 500,000 homes. The race bank wind farm is 7th among offshore wind projects in the UK regarding installed capacity.

Is it a fixed or floating foundation?

The project used monopile foundations installed by GeoSea. The monopiles stabilize the tower and the turbines in water depths as low as 6 meters and as deep as 26 meters. This DEME group subsidiary also installed the foundation at Ørsted’s Westermost Rough.

Race Bank Turbines

There are a total of 91 installed turbines in the Race bank farm. There are a total of 91 installed turbines in the Race bank farm. All the turbines were installed in a single phase. Siemens was contracted for the manufacturing, supply, installation, and servicing of the 6 MW turbines. Siemens SWT-6.0-154 offshore wind turbines were used in the project, which has 154 meters of rotor diameter with a nameplate capacity of 6.3 MW. Each offshore wind turbine has 6.3 MW of capacity.

The project has a total of 91 offshore wind turbines, and they were all installed in a single phase.

Race Bank chose Siemens Gamesa SWT-6.0-154 offshore wind turbines for their project. Siemens managed the manufacturing, supplying, installing, and servicing of their 6.3 MW turbines.