One of the wind farms off the coast of Norfolk is the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind farm which can power up to 280,000 homes in the UK.
The Crown Estate awarded this farm in the 2004 Round 2 licensing. The wind farm occupies a 35 square kilometer area at 17 to 22 kilometers from shore, with the turbines spaced less than 1 kilometer apart.
The above-average wind speed of the area and low fishing activities in the vicinity made the region an excellent location for the wind farm.
Who owns the Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm?
Three companies own the wind farm–Equinor (40%), Statkraft (40%), and Green Investment Bank (20%). The joint venture group’s name is Scira Offshore Energy Limited.
Equinor operates the Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm from its base at Great Yarmouth.
How much wind power does the wind farm deliver?
The wind farm delivers an average of 1.1 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity yearly. The wind farm has an installed capacity of 316.8 MW from 88 turbines.
Where is Sheringham Shoal Windfarm?
Sheringham Shoal Wind farm is located in the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk, England. The wind farm is 17 kilometers from the shores of Sheringham, Norfolk. The wind farm project is near Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, another Equinor project a bit farther out to the North Sea.
Equinor runs an operations and maintenance base with shared staff from Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm. The O&M Base is located at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
The wind farms are both serviced by a state-of-the-art Service Operations Vessel (SOV) ‘Esvagt Njord,’ a 58-cabin vessel that can stay for two weeks at sea. After the two-week voyage, the vessel returns to Great Yarmouth river harbor to replenish, restock, and shift crews.
When was the wind farm commissioned?
Equinor commissied the farm in 2012.
What are the components used in the wind farm project?
The wind farm uses 88 Siemens SWT-3.6-107 MW offshore wind turbines. Fixed foundations support the turbines.
The wind farm has two offshore substations, which weigh 900 tons each. Areva was the main contractor for the equipment and supply of the two offshore substations. Wood Group Engineering designed the two substations under Areva’s guidance. Seaway Heavy Lifting Contracting won the substation foundation bids.
Visser and Smit Marine Contracting and Global Marine Systems installed the marine cables. When the export cables reach the Weybourne shoreline, the electricity is carried by 21 kilometers of underground cabling to a new substation at Salle, near Cawston.
Finally, the electricity will enter the National Grid via Norwich. The onshore cables travel to the 132 kV substation at Salle. Most of the route is farmland and a few directional drilling sites.
How many turbines are in Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind farm?
The wind farm has 88 total offshore wind turbines. The wind turbines are Siemens Wind Power with 3.6 MW capacity each. The total capacity of the wind farm is 316.8 MW.
How many wind turbines are there in Norfolk?
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, Race Bank, and Sheringham Shoal are the three offshore wind farms off the Norfolk coast that are already operational.
These three wind farms have 246 turbines in total. A future offshore wind project near the Norfolk coast is Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farm, a 1.8 GW wind farm 47 km off the Norfolk shoreline. The project will add hundreds of regional turbines and begin construction in 2023.
What are the expansion plans at the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind farm?
The UK government identified the extension projects of Sheringham and Dudgeon Offshore Wind farms as a ‘Pathfinder’ project under the Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR).
OTNR will assess how the offshore transmission network of both extension projects can be made more efficient and have as little impact on the environment as possible. As part of the OTNR project, the developers will coordinate with BEIS to develop the best approach to regulatory policies and challenges.
If developers successfully combined both transmission lines, they would also reduce costs. The project is also expected to deliver early benefits for the developers regarding project timelines.
The extension projects are off Cromer’s northern coastline and Sheringham shore. After commissioning, the two extension projects will add 719 MW of clean energy to the national grid.