The Suffolk/Norfolk coast is leading the way in offshore wind
Greater Gabbard: Commission completes milestone month By Tom Potter Saturday, September 29, 2012
7:30 AM
Milestone month as turbines of industry turn
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THE emergence of green energy as a key industry in Suffolk has reached a major milestone after an offshore wind farm started to produce enough power to supply more than half a million homes.
The Greater Gabbard wind farm, off the coast of Sizewell, is now able to generate 500 megawatts of power through its 140 turbines.
And with two new wind farms in the pipeline on the Suffolk coast - East Anglia One, which will have up to 325, and the proposed 504MW Galloper extension to Greater Gabbard - experts say the industry is set to boom in the coming years.
A major industry body hailed the full operation of Greater Gabbard as a “landmark” in the development of renewable energy.
Trade experts labelled the last month “Super September”, following news that all 140 turbines at the 500MW capacity site off north Suffolk had been commissioned and exported electricity.
Its impressive potential would be eclipsed by the proposed East Anglia One development, which covers around 300km with up to 325 three bladed wind turbines providing an installed capacity of 1,200MW or 1.2 gigawatts, and is the first stage of one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, East Anglia Offshore Wind (EAOW), that will generate around 7.2GW of electricity, enough power up to five million homes.
With the potential to provide nearly a third of the total energy supplied by offshore wind to UK homes, Greater Gabbard has also been acknowledge as generating vital investment to support the growth of our local economy.
Roughly £1.5 million was spent refurbishing a derelict part of the old Lowestoft fish market to transform it into an operation and maintenance base, including stores, round-the-clock control room and offices for 80 people.
A further half-a-million pounds has been sunk into building a new purpose built hanger and helicopter landing pad.
Scottish and Southern Energy plc, which is jointly in charge of the project with RWE npower renewables, will directly employ 25 full time local staff for the operation and administration of Gabbard.
Meanwhile, Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Limited (GGOWL) has taken on the first workboat vessels from two new operators - Great Yarmouth-based Iceni Marine and Tidal Transit, operating from the North Norfolk coast.
Another notable contract has been awarded to local product supply specialists 3Sun for statutory inspections, while CLS Offshore and Lowestoft’s Windcat Workboats have all benefited from work on the Suffolk coast and the introduction to offshore markets beyond Greater Gabbard.
Two UK companies - Wood Group based in Aberdeen and Steel Engineering of Renfrewshire - also won contracts worth more £17m to manufacture, install and operate two weather monitoring stations in the East Anglia wind farm zone. The 1,000 tonnes of steel needed for the weather stations’ foundations will be manufactured at a new engineering plant on the outskirts of Glasgow.
The UK now has more than 2.67 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity installed - enough to power more than 1.8m homes - with Greater Gabbard able to power 530,000 homes, based on annual household consumption of 3,300kWh.
All the turbines have now been commissioned and are exporting electricity, despite developers GGOWL remaining in a contractual dispute with engineering, procurement and construction contractor Fluor, relating to the quality of turbine supporting foundations and the ability of the structures to operate for their entire design life.
As well as Greater Gabbard, two other major offshore projects were opened in September, with Statoil and Statkraft’s Sheringham Shoal wind farm off the coast of Norfolk adding 317MW, and Vattenfall’s Ormonde wind farm off the coast of Cumbria opening with a capacity of 150MW.
September also saw the opening of a new offshore wind manufacturing facility at the Tata Steel plant in Hartlepool.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of trade association RenewableUK, said: “This is a landmark month for the British offshore wind industry, with more than 2.6 gigawatts of wind energy now installed.
“It’s amazing to think that the capacity of the three offshore wind farms which have either officially opened or gone operational this month has added very nearly a gigawatt in September alone.
“It provides clear evidence of the extraordinary progress being made in this dynamic sector - the UK has more capacity installed offshore than the rest of the world put together, and we keep on extending that lead.
“What all three of these projects have also demonstrated is that, as well as providing clean energy, the construction and operation of offshore wind farms can provide vital investment needed to support the growth of local economies here in the UK.”
Der Windpark Scroby Sands vor der englischen Ostküste liefert bereits seit 2004 elektrischen Strom für 41.000 Haushalte



 Seit 7. September liefern die 140 Turbinen des Offshore-Windparks Greater Gabbard nordöstlich im Ärmelkanal elektrischen Strom. Es handelt sich um 140 Windkraftturbinen der Firma Siemens mit jeweils 3,6 MegaWatt (MW), einer Gesamtleistung von 504 MW und damit den gegenwärtig größten Offshore-Windpark der Welt. Der Windpark liegt etwa 23 km vor der englischen Küste in der Nähe der Grafschaft Suffolk und ist ein Joint-Venture der Energiekonzerne RWE und SSE. Da noch Zweifel an der Sicherheit einiger Fundamente bestehen, ist die Anlage allerdings noch nicht abgenommen worden.

Der elektrische Strom wird zu zwei Umspannplattformen geleitet, die mit insgesamt 172 km Seekabel mit den einzelnen Windkraftanlagen verbunden sind. Die Umspannplattformen wandeln den Strom von der Mittelspannungsebene 34 kV auf 132 kV um. Über drei Kabel von je 45 km Länge geht es dann zum Hauptverteiler in Leiston, wo die Einspeisung in das öffentliche Stromnetz erfolgt. Durch die Windverhältnisse wird - verglichen mit Anlagen auf dem Festland - von einer verhältnismäßig gleichmäßigen Stromerzeugung ausgegangen. Die durchschnittliche Windgeschwindigkeit beträgt in 100 Metern Höhe 9,87 Meter pro Sekunde im 10-jährigen Mittel.

Der Windpark Greater Gabbard ist ein Meilenstein bei der Umsetzung des Plans der britischen Regierung, ein Drittel des Energiebedarfs der Haushalte des Vereinigten Königreichs aus Offshore-Windstrom zu decken. Als nächstes Projekt ist in der Nordsee vor der englischen Ostküste neben der Erweiterung mit dem gleichgroßen Galloper Windpark bis 2017 der noch größere Windpark East Anglia One mit 1.200 MW vorgesehen. Insgesamt soll der East Anglia Offshore Windpark (EAOW) eine Kapazität von 7.200 MW haben und wäre auch in absehbarer Zukunft der weltweit größte dieser Art.