DONG Energy to build world’s largest offshore wind farm

Danish based DONG Energy has confirmed plans to build the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

The 660MW Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm will be built in the Irish Sea, approximately 19 kilometres off the coast of Cumbria.

The project will be constructed in two phases and is expected to be completed in 2018.

The final investment decision on Walney 3 was secured on Tuesday, after Dong secured the necessary consents for the scheme and signed the majority of contracts relating to the project.

When complete, Walney 1 and 2, the wind farm is expected to create a total generating capacity of 1,027 megawatts of energy.

Samuel Leupold, Executive Vice President at DONG Energy, said: "Walney Extension will deliver clean electricity to more than 460,000 UK homes and I'm very glad that we can now start construction of what will be the world's biggest offshore wind farm when completed.

“Building this offshore wind farm will bring us significantly closer to realising our strategy of having 6.5 gigawatts of installed capacity online by 2020."

"British offshore wind has seen phenomenal growth in recent years. A prerequisite for long-term growth in the industry is that offshore wind eventually can compete on costs with other energy technologies.

“Building Walney Extension will bring us one step closer to that target and I'm satisfied to see that we keep bringing costs down, while continuing to expand the UK supply chain.

“I'm also excited about the fact that turbine blades, part of the foundations and cable installation will come from UK manufacturing facilities and create local jobs."

The first phase of the project will use Vestas Offshore turbines, who will supply blades from its UK factory on the Isle of Wight.

The second phase will use Siemens’ 7megawatts turbines, which will use its new Greenport Hull factory.