Westermost Rough, the world’s first offshore wind farm to make commercial use of giant 6MW turbines with 75 metre blades, has been officially opened at a ceremony in Grimsby today.
Capable of meeting the electricity demand of well over 150,000 homes, the wind farm, is a joint venture between DONG Energy (50%) and its partners Marubeni Corporation (25%) and the UK Green Investment Bank plc (25%).
DONG Energy Chief Executive Henrik Poulsen said: “Westermost Rough is a ground-breaking project which is playing an important part in our drive to reduce the cost of electricity from offshore wind.
“Not only is this the first offshore wind project in the world to deploy the Siemens 6MW wind turbine, with a 154 metre rotor diameter, it also stands out as a project which attracted investment during the construction phase from our joint venture partners, Marubeni and Green Investment Bank.”
He added: “Westermost Rough is the latest wind farm in our portfolio of wind farms with a total installed capacity of over 3,000 MW – more than half in the UK.”
Shaun Kingsbury, Chief Executive UK Green Investment Bank plc, said: “Westermost Rough is a pioneering project that has helped advance the offshore wind sector across the world by utilising new technology for the first time; increasing performance levels while decreasing costs. We congratulate DONG Energy on its delivery of a world-class project.
“It has also been an important project in the development of the UK Green Investment Bank. It was our first construction-phase investment in the offshore wind sector, saw us enter into partnership with DONG Energy and Marubeni for the first time and was the first project we have refinanced, attracting new investors.”
Westermost Rough is capable of generating up to 210 MW of electricity, using 35 Siemens 6MW turbines. Each turbine stands 177 metres high from sea level to blade tip, more than 20 metres higher than the towers of the Humber Bridge.
Westermost Rough is located 8 kilometres from the Holderness coast, approximately 25km north of Spurn Head at the River Humber estuary. Cables bring the power ashore on the Holderness Coast north of Withernsea and into the national grid at the Westermost Rough onshore substation on Staithes Road, Hedon outside Hull.