A celebration of the completion of construction of West of Duddon Sands Offshore Windfarm, officially opened on 30th October 2014 by Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change Rt. Hon. Edward Davey MP, Chairman of ScottishPower Mr. Ignacio S. Galan CBE and Executive Vice President Wind Power of DONG Energy Mr. Samuel Leupold.

The windfarm is located in the Irish Sea, off the Cumbrian coast, close to Walney Island and generates up to 389 megawatts of power from 108 turbines. The project was developed through a ScottishPower Renewables and DONG Energy joint venture.

Off the North Sea coast of Germany

Currently the offshore wind farm Sandbank is under construction. In summer 2015 the foundation installation works started and in February 2016 the last MPs and TPs were successfully installed. Construction is being carried out off the German North Sea coastline, in a project area located roughly 90 km west of the island of Sylt and in direct neighborhood to the offshore wind farm DanTysk which was commissioned in 2015.

Responsible for “Transport and Installation”
The construction features 72 Monopiles with a 6 m diameter and a length of up to 70 m. The longest piles weigh 900 t. The foundations are produced on dry land and transported on our barges to the load out harbor in Esbjerg. There, they are loaded on to the installation vessel Pacific Orca and transported directly to the project area. The Monopiles are rammed into the seabed with the at the moment largest hydraulic hammer in the world, Menck’s MHU 3500S. Two systems are used for noise mitigation: 1. hydro sound dampers net (near-field system) and 2. big, double bubble curtain (far-field system). Once completed, the offshore wind farm Sandbank will provide electricity to approximately 400,000 households.

The project at a glance

Client:
Sandbank Offshore Wind GmbH
(joint venture between Vattenfall Europe Windkraft GmbH and Stadtwerke München GmbH)

Location:
German North Sea, approx. 90 km off the island of Sylt

Construction period:
2015 – 2016

Foundation type:
Monopile

Services:
“Transport and Installation”, Installation of 72 monopile foundations and transition pieces

Water depth:
24 – 34 m

Foundation dimensions:
Length: max. 70 m, ø: 6.80 m, weight: max. 900 t

Installed capacity:
288 MW, 4,0 MW/turbine

This video shows the construction of the Coega wind farm.

ALE was involved in the handling and transportation of all major components for the Coega wind farm in Oyster Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

This included the handling and transportation of 32 N100 R80 wind turbine generators, consisting of three blades, a nacelle, hub, drive trains and four tower sections, along with the associated equipment, all varying in weight and dimensions.

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electrical power.Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion, also called wind.Large wind farms consist of hundreds of individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network.

Europe accounted for 48% of the world total wind power generation capacity in 2009. In 2010, Spain became Europe’s leading producer of wind energy, achieving 42,976 GWh. Germany held the top spot in Europe in terms of installed capacity.

In 2010, more than half of all new wind power was added outside of the traditional markets in Europe and North America. This was largely from new construction in China, which accounted for nearly half the new wind installations (16.5 GW).

Compared to the environmental impact of traditional energy sources, the environmental impact of wind power is relatively minor in terms of pollution. Wind power consumes no fuel, and emits no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources. The energy consumed to manufacture and transport the materials used to build a wind power plant is equal to the new energy produced by the plant within a few months. While a wind farm may cover a large area of land, many land uses such as agriculture are compatible, with only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure made unavailable for use.

Construction of the largest land-based wind turbine ever built in the United States.

“Reaching New Heights” uses a combination of time-lapse footage, aerial photography and behind-the-scenes action shots to document the steps involved in building MidAmerican Energy’s first concrete wind turbine tower, located at the company’s Adams wind farm in Adams County, Iowa. At 379 feet from ground to hub, the concrete turbine is more than 100 feet taller than its neighboring turbines constructed with steel towers.

Transfer from Siemens SWT-6.0-154 Wind Turbine at the DONG Energy Westermost Rough Project. Aviation services provided by Uni-Fly A/S. November 8, 2015

Sea conditions prohibited transfer to and from turbine by vessel so helicopter was used to access turbine for maintenance. Wind speeds during transfer varied between 15 – 20 m/s (33 – 45 mph).

For normal transfer vessels, the trip to the wind farm from the port of Grimsby is 2 hours. Flight time to site by helicopter from Humberside Airport is around 12 minutes.

Training requirements for helicopter transfer include, HUET (Helicopter Underwater Evacuation Training), Tower Rescue Up, and Helicopter Hoist Operator training.

Lying south of the 40th parallel in the path of prevailing westerly winds, Tasmania has excellent resources for the generation of wind power.

The Musselroe Wind Farm site is 100 kilometres north-east of Launceston and 20 kilometres north of Gladstone. It is an agricultural property owned by Hydro Tasmania.

The Musselroe Wind Farm consists of 56 Vestas V90 wind turbines, with a generating capacity of 168 MW.

The project included the construction of a transmission line to connect the wind farm to the electricity grid at Derby.

Wind has been monitored at the Musselroe site since the early 1980s. Data gathered suggests that the area’s wind resource is world class.

This 20 documentary shows how teams developed the Musselroe Wind Farm project from start to finish.

A wind farm or wind park is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce energy. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm can also be located offshore.

Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in the United States and China. For example, the Gansu Wind Farm in China has a capacity of over 5,000 MW of power with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California, United States is the largest onshore wind farm outside of China, with a capacity of 1,020 MW. As of April 2013, the 630 MW London Array in the UK is the largest offshore wind farm in the world, followed by the 504 MW Greater Gabbard wind farm in the UK.

There are many large wind farms under construction and these include Sinus Holding Wind Farm (700 MW), Lincs Wind Farm (270 MW), Lower Snake River Wind Project (343 MW), Macarthur Wind Farm (420 MW).