Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm

Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm
Location of Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm in England
Country England, United Kingdom
Location North Sea
Coordinates 53°08′06″N 1°08′49″E / 53.135°N 1.147°E / 53.135; 1.147Coordinates: 53°08′06″N 1°08′49″E / 53.135°N 1.147°E / 53.135; 1.147
Status Operational
Commission date September 2012
Owner(s) Statoil 40%
Statkraft 40%
Green Investment Bank 20%
Wind farm
Type Offshore
Site area 35 km2 (14 sq mi)
Max. water depth 15–22 m (49–72 ft)
Distance from shore 17 km (11 mi)
Power generation
Units operational 88
Make and model Siemens Wind Power 3.6MW
Nameplate capacity 316.8 MW
Annual generation 1.2 TWh (2012-3)
Website
www.scira.co.uk

Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm is an Round 2 wind farm in North Sea off the coast of Norfolk. A lease for use of the sea bed was obrained in 2004 by Scira Offshore Energy (later acquired by Statoil and Statkraft), the development gained offshore planning consent in 2008, and was constructed 2009-2011, being officially opened in 2012.

The windfarm has 88 Siemens Wind Power 3.6MW turbines (total power 316.8 MW) spread over a 35 km2 (14 sq mi) area over 17 km (11 mi) from shore.

History

In 2004 the Crown Estate awarded Econventures (Utrecht, NL) the lease of the Round 2 wind farm site arSheringham shoal.[1] Econventures together with SLP Energy (Lowestoft, UK) formed a joint venture Scira Offshore Energy to develop a c. 315MW wind farm. Development work for Econventures was to be carried out by Evelop BV, both subsidiaries of Econcern BV.[2] In 2005 Hydro took a 50% stake in Scira, acquiring 25% shareholdings from both SLP Energy and Ecocentures.[3]

In 2006 Scira submitted a planning application to the Department of Trade and Industry for a 108 turbine, 315 MW wind farm.[4]

The planned wind farm was approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) off the coast of Norfolk at Sheringham, just within the 12 nm UK territorial water boundary, and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of the sand bank known as Sheringham shoal. The wind farm would be located at water depths of 16 to 22 metres (52 to 72 ft) and consist of somewhere between 45 and 108 turbines. Benefits of the site included low shipping and trawling intensities; lack of any dredging, dumping, oil/gas, or MoD practice areas, and of cables or pipelines; as well as low visual impact from the coast, and outside any nature conservation areas.[5] The seabed at the windfarm and offshore cable route consisted of mainly gravely sand, overlying chalk.[6] The electrical power export cable was to be connected to a switching station near Muckleburgh Collection, via landfall near Weybourne Hope.[7] Two routes were considered for the export cable, one avoiding the sand bank atSheringham shoal.[8] The connection to the National Grid was planned to be made at an electrical substation near Salle, Norfolk via a 132kV 21.3 kilometres (13.2 mi) underground cable.[9]

Planning consent for the wind farm was given on 8 August 2008.[10]

In 2009 Statkraft acquired 50% of the shareholding in Scira becoming joint (50:50) owners of the development.[11] In 2014 the Green Investment Bank took a £240 million 20% stake in the wind farm.[12]

The lease on the sea bed given by the Crown Estate has a duration of 50 years, and the (initial) wind farm has an estimated lifespan of 20 years. The 2004 Energy Act requires the developer to decommission the wind farm once out of use - the decommissioning plan submitted by the developer included: removal of wind turbines, cutting of foundations at seabed level or lower, whilst interarray cables would be left on the sea bed.[13]

Construction

Turbine installation vessel GMS Endeavour (30 September 2011)

In April 2008 Nexans was awarded a €24m contract for the supply and construction of the 145kV export cables,[14] and was awarded a €12m ($15.8m) contract in April 2009 to supply 81 km of 36kV inter-array cables.[15] Areva obtained a €50 million contract to supply offshore and onshore substations in late 2008,[16][17] design and project management of the offshore substations was sub-contracted to Wood Group.[18]

Design work on the turbine and substation foundations was contracted to Ramboll.[19] The two foundations for the substations and foundations for 88 turbines were supplied by MT Højgaard.[20] Manufacture of the turbine monopiles and transition pieces was subcontracted to Sif Group and Smulders.[21] The substation superstructure and foundations were subcontracted to Heerema (topside), Bladt Industries (transition pieces) and Sif Group and Smulders (piles).[22] In 2009 Siemens obtained a €450 million contract to supply 88 wind turbines to the wind farm.[23]

Onshore work began in 2009,[24] and construction of the offshore part began March 2010.[25][26] Turbine foundations installation begain in June 2010;[27] MT Højgaard installed the substation piles and 17 of the turbine foundations, using the vessel Svanen, halting installation due to a previously scheduled contract for the installation vessel.[20] The foundations installed by MT Højgaard used a special method: the support of the foundation on the delivery barge had its motion steadied by a 135t sliding support with hydraulic motors compensating for wave oscillations.[28][29] Delays of several months of the arrival of foundation transport vessels, coupled with wave conditions limiting the operational window of use of the transport vessels, meant that the vessel Svanen was not able to install all the foundations. The delay had an estimated additional cost of 600 million NOK.

Export cable installation began late 2010, under contract to Visser & Smith Marine Contracting. Work was carried out by the ships Atlantic Guardian (route clearance), Team Oman (laying), and VOS Sympathy (trenching).[30]

The offshore substations were installed in May 2011 by Heerema.[31] The remaining pile foundations, and the transition pieces and offshore substation topsides where installed by Seaway Heavy Lifting between May and Aug 2011 using the newly built Oleg Strashnov.[32][33] A previous contract with Master Marine for the substation installation was cancelled and transferred to Seaway due to the delays.[34] Foundation and transition piece installation was complete by Aug 2011.[32][35]

Inter-array cables were laid by Team Oman, and installed under the sea bed by water jetting by Toisa Warrior. Installation was complete by Mar 2012.[36][37]

The turbine installation was contracted to Gulf Marine Services in Dec 2010, the initial contract with Master Marine was terminated by mutual agreement after the foundation installation delays.[38] Turbine installation was carried out by the jackup vessels Sea Jackand GMS Endeavour, with SEA JACK replaced by Sea Jack Leviathan in late 2011.[36][39] The first turbine was installed on 3 July 2011,[40] and began generating in Aug 2011;[41] installation was complete by July 2012.[42]

Operations bases

As part of the development the harbour and channel at Wells Harbour was dredged to allow wind farm maintenance vessels to be based there. A 150 metres (490 ft) pontoon jetty was also built; the work was completed early 2010.[43][44][45] An onshore operations base was constructed at Egmere, 3 miles south of Wells-next-the-Sea, with building work taking place in 2012.[46][47][48]

Operation

The wind farm was operational by late 2011.[49] An official opening took place on September 27, 2012 attended by Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and UK Secretary of State Edward Davey.[50][51] The cost of development has been estimated at 10billion Norwegian krona ($1.8 billion).[52] Wells Harbour is used as the operational base for the wind farm.[52]

In June 2013 a consortium, "Blue Transmission" (Macquarie Capital Group, Barclays Infrastructure Funds) acquired the electrical transmission assets of the wind farm for £193 million.[53] In Aug 2013 Statkraft took over operations and maintenance of the windfarm from Scira.[54]

By Sep 2013 the wind farm had generated 1.2TWh in its first year of operation.[55]

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ "UK Green Light for 15 Offshore Wind Farms", www.maritimejournal.com, 1 Jan 2004
  2. ↑ "Crown Estate awards Scira Offshore Energy a Wind Farm Site", www.eeegr.com, 18 December 2003
  3. ↑ Signs offshore wind power deal in UK, Hydro, 28 June 2005
  4. ↑ "Application for 315 MW off east coast of England", www.windpowermonthly.com, 1 July 2006
  5. ↑ ES 2006, §1.3.2.
  6. ↑ ES 2006, §2.4.2.
  7. ↑ ES 2006, §2.2.1, 2.2.1.4.
  8. ↑ ES 2006, §2.9.1; Fig.2.17, p.70.
  9. ↑ ES onshore grid 2007, pp. 2, 7.
  10. ↑ Barclay, Christopher (17 July 2012), Wind Farm consents - offshore (PDF), House of Commons Library, §4, p.5
  11. ↑ Eversheds advises Statkraft on acquisition of 50% of Sheringham Shoal wind farm (press release), Eversheds, 3 Apr 2009
  12. ↑ "UK Green Investment Bank invests £240m in UK offshore wind sector", /www.greeninvestmentbank.com (press release), 27 Nov 2014
  13. ↑ Decommissioning Programme (PDF), Statoil, 14 Feb 2014, §2, p.6
  14. ↑ "24 million Euro submarine power cable contract for the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm A", www.nexans.com (press release), 16 Apr 2008
  15. ↑ "Nexans wins 12 million Euro infield cable contract for Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm", www.nexans.com (press release), 2 Apr 2009
  16. ↑ Berrill, Paul (23 Dec 2008), "Areva wins €60m Statoil contract for Sheringham Shoal", www.rechargenews.com
  17. ↑ "Areva T&D to provide substations for StatoilHydro's Sheringham Shoal wind farm", tdworld.com, 8 Jan 2009
  18. ↑ "Wood Group branches out as winds of change blow", www.scotsman.com, 2 June 2009
  19. ↑ SUBSTATION DESIGN FOR SHERINGHAM SHOAL WIND FARM, retrieved Feb 2016
  20. 1 2 "Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm", mth.com, retrieved Feb 2016
  21. ↑ Lorc, § Turbine, Tower and Substructure.
  22. ↑ Lorc, § Substations, Inter-Array & Export Cables - Offshore Substation.
  23. ↑ Siemens awarded major offshore wind power contract worth more than 450 Million EUR, Siemens, 1 Apr 2009
  24. ↑ "Onshore work commences.", scira.co.uk (press release), 30 June 2009
  25. ↑ "Construction work began on Sheringham Shoal offshore windfarm", www.offshorewind.biz, 9 Mar 2010
  26. ↑ "Construction work begins on Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm site", scira.co.uk (press release), 9 Mar 2010
  27. ↑ "First foundation installed at Sheringham Shoal", scira.co.uk (press release), 28 June 2010
  28. ↑ Krøyer, Kent (9 November 2010), "Gigantisk rulleskøjte gør det lettere at rejse havmøllefundamenter" [Giant roller skate raises wind turbine foundations], ing.dk (in Danish)
  29. ↑ A 135 ton "shock absorber" on rails, MT Højgaard, 3 November 2010
  30. ↑ "Trio of vessels to install Sheringham Shoal export cable", scira.co.uk (press release), 17 Sep 2010
  31. ↑ "Sheringham Shoal offshore substations in place", scira.co.uk (press release), 13 May 2011
  32. 1 2 "Foundation installation complete at Sheringham Shoal", www.wellsharbour.co.uk, 24 August 2011, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2012
  33. ↑ "Seaway Heavy Lifting to Install Subsea Foundations for Offshore Wind Farm on Sheringham Shoal (UK)]", subseaworldnews.com, 11 March 2011
  34. ↑ "Substation and foundation installation contract awarded", scira.co.uk (press release), 11 Mar 2011
  35. ↑ "Foundation installation complete at Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm site", scira.co.uk (press release), 23 Aug 2011
  36. 1 2 "More vessels join Sheringham Shoal fleet", scira.co.uk (press release), 22 Sep 2011
  37. ↑ "Cable laying complete at Sheringham Shoal", scira.co.uk (press release), 21 Mar 2012
  38. ↑ "New turbine installation contract awarded", scira.co.uk, 22 Dec 2010
  39. ↑ "New turbine installation vessel to start at Sheringham Shoal", scira.co.uk (press release), 7 Dec 2011
  40. ↑ "First turbine installed at Sheringham Shoal", scira.co.uk (press release), 4 July 2011
  41. ↑ "First power to the Grid", scira.co.uk (press release), 2 Aug 2011
  42. ↑ "Turbine installation complete at Sheringham Shoal", scira.co.uk (press release), 10 July 2012
  43. ↑ "Historic cooperation agreement signed.", scira.co.uk (press release), 24 June 2009
  44. ↑ "New outer harbour at Wells taking shape", scira.co.uk (press release), 4 Feb 2010
  45. ↑ "Wells Harbour construction complete", scira.co.uk (press release), 16 Feb 2010
  46. ↑ "Swaffham company wins wind farm base construction contract", scira.co.uk (press release), 15 Mar 2012
  47. ↑ "Construction progresses at Scira's new permanent O&M base", scira.co.uk (press release), 20 June 2012
  48. ↑ "Egmere base almost complete", scira.co.uk (press release), 18 Oct 2012
  49. ↑ The first energy delivery from offshore wind (press release), Statkraft, 22 Nov 2011
  50. ↑ Statkraft (27 Sep 2012), Statkraft: Norway's Crown Prince opens Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm (press release), Reuters
  51. ↑ Opening of Sheringham Shoal windfarm, 27 Sep 2012, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2012
  52. 1 2 Power Technology.
  53. ↑ "UK: Ofgem Awards Sheringham Shoal Offshore Transmission Licence", www.offshorewind.biz, 28 June 2013
  54. ↑ "Statkraft to operate Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm", www.windpoweroffshore.com, 15 Aug 2013
  55. ↑ "Sheringham pumps out 1.2TWh", renews.biz, 27 Sep 2013

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