Electricity has been generated for the first time at the Westermost Rough offshore wind farm, the project’s partners have said.
Dong Energy, Marubeni Corporation and the UK’s Green Investment Bank say that the milestone was achieved less than a month after the first of 35 Siemens 6 MW turbines was installed at the site off the east coast of Britain.
"The process has gone extremely well," said Sam Hall, Lead Commissioning Manager for Westermost Rough. "We energised all the way through the transmissions assets of the wind farm in early August and have been working since on the installation and commissioning of the first batch of turbines.
"Over the coming weeks the first turbines will be generating clean, green electricity and then supplying it to the UK grid."
Once all 35 turbines are in place, expected in the first half of 2015, the wind farm will be capable of generating up to 210 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The project represents the first commercial deployment of Siemens’ 6 MW offshore wind turbine unit and is therefore an important step forward in the industry’s efforts to reduce the cost of offshore wind, Dong said in a statement.
