The team behind Centrica Energy’s Lincs offshore wind farm are celebrating the completion of the final stage in construction for the 75-turbine project.
Commissioning of the 270MW wind farm drew to a close yesterday (Wednesday) marking the culmination of over three years work since the start of construction in 2010.
Lincs Project Director Patrick Harnett said: “Commissioning is the final milestone in the completion of a project so it’s a great achievement for the team.
“The offshore environment brings with it a variety of challenges not least of all with the weather, which has thrown pretty much everything at us. There’ve been times over the winter when it felt like we were all working on ‘mission impossible’ but it’s been a great summer and the team have made a sterling effort to get us to where we are today.
“It gives me great pleasure to say this truly is mission complete for the Lincs construction and the start of a new chapter as a major generator of clean, renewable energy for the UK.”
Lincs has achieved in excess of 99% availability throughout the final performance testing phase.
Managing Director of Centrica Energy’s Power Generation business, Simon Merriweather said: “I’d like to congratulate everyone involved with the Lincs construction on this significant achievement. Hopefully the outcome of the current Government policy review will give us the opportunity to celebrate many more such successes.”
The Lincs wind farm is capable of producing enough clean renewable energy for over 200,000 homes – equivalent to around two thirds of the homes in Lincolnshire – and was officially opened in August by the Deputy Prime Minister.
The site is managed from Centrica Energy’s Operations & Maintenance base in Grimsby, which serves as a shared resource for the Lincs, Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms. The base also includes the Siemens service team.
Lincs is a joint venture between leading UK energy company Centrica Energy, offshore wind market leader DONG Energy and Siemens Project Ventures.
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Press release, September 26, 2013; Image: centrica