The final turbine has been installed at Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), a Scotland’s largest offshore wind test and demonstration facility.
Image: The wind farm features nine 8.4MW turbines along with two 8.8MW models. Photo courtesy of Vattenfall.
The wind farm, which has a nominal capacity of 93.2MW, will generate about 312GWh of clean electricity per year.
Energy produced by the wind farm will be sufficient to meet annual power needs of 79,000 homes in the UK, while avoiding 134,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent of taking away more than 730,000 cars off of the UK’s roads.
The wind farm has eleven turbines and the last turbine has been installed now. Vattenfall stated that the turbine has been installed nine weeks after the first foundation for the wind farm has been laid.
Vattenfall, EOWDC project director Adam Ezzamel said: “This is a magnificent offshore engineering feat for a project that involves industry-first technology and innovative approaches to the design and construction. Throughout construction, the project team and our contractors have encountered, tackled and resolved a number of challenges.
“The erection of the final turbine is a significant milestone, and with the completion of array cable installation, we now move on to the final commissioning phase of the wind farm prior to first power later this summer.”
The EOWDC received a funding of up to €40m from the European Union and is supported by Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG).
MHI Vestas chief operations officer Flemming Ougaard said: “We’re excited to see that the last turbine has been safely installed at Aberdeen Bay with our partner, Vattenfall.
“With clean power set to soon flow to the national grid from all 11 turbines, we very much look forward to operations and service at the new offshore wind park.”
The wind farm is powered by nine of MHI Vestas’ V164-8.4MW and two of 8.8MW turbine models. Boskalis was chosen as the preferred offshore balance of plant (BoP) contractor for the construction and installation of the offshore infrastructure including the foundations and cabling.