The last of the 67 turbines has been installed at the Dudgeon offshore wind farm that has a capacity to generate 402MW of clean energy.
The wind farm, which is located 40km off the coast of the town Cromer in North Norfolk, is owned by Statoil, Statkraft and Masdar in a joint venture company. Statoil is also the developer and the operator of the wind farm.
Dudgeon wind farm is being built with a total budget of £1.5bn and it is expected to generate enough electricity to be supplied to over 410,000 UK homes.
Statoil, Technology, projects and drilling executive vice president Margareth Øvrum said: “It is wonderful to celebrate that all turbines are fully installed and the offshore operations have been carried out without any serious incidents.
“Efficiency during installations and completion has been excellent, and I am pleased to see that we are now producing.”
Dudgeon wind farm has 67 of 6MW turbines supplied by Siemens. The wind turbines are supported by monopile structures, which were supplied by UK company Atkins. Contract for the installation of the monopile structures was awarded to Seaway Heavy Lifting.
Development of the offshore wind project began back in 2012 and with the turbine installation now complete, the remaining work is to commission the turbines. The wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned in February next year.
Statoil New Energy Solutions executive vice president Irene Rummelhoff said: “Dudgeon offshore wind farm is part of Statoil’s strategy of gradually supplementing our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy.
“Offshore wind has been a natural place to start, as we can build on our maritime expertise, experience from complex projects and our supplier chain. With Dudgeon in full production Statoil is well on its way to providing more than one million households in Europe with renewable electricity.”
Apart from operating the Dudgeon offshore wind farm, Statoil also operates the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm in the UK. It generates enough electricity to be supplied to about 200,000 UK homes.
Image: Installation of all turbines completed at Dudgeon offshore wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of Statoil ASA.