Humber Gateway offshore wind farm in UK starts power production

E.ON announced that its Humber Gateway offshore wind farm has started full power generation after final turbine installed at the facility in the UK.

Final phase of construction at the 219MW project will be completed this summer.

Humber Gateway is located eight kilometers off the coast of Holderness near Yorkshire, UK.

Construction on the project began back in 2012 and first of the 73 turbines became operational in February 2014.

The Humber Gateway offshore wind farm is fully owned by E.ON and after the completion of reliability runs, the windfarm will be handed over from the project organisation to operational service.

E.ON highlighted that the offshore wind farm will be capable of supplying renewable power to 170,000 households.

E.ON Management Board member Bernhard Reutersberg said: "The rapid completion of this project is an outstanding success.

"E.ON is well on its way toward making offshore wind power even more competitive and reducing power-generation costs to less than €100 per megawatt-hour.

"We’re superbly positioned for future auctions in relevant European markets."

In the UK, the company is planning to construct a 400MW project off the south coast of England and it is also constructing another offshore wind farm named Amrumbank West in the German North Sea.

Humber Gateway project manager Matthew Swanwick said: "This is the last stage of the major construction phase and the culmination of more than 3 years’ offshore construction work which began in early 2012 starting with work at the onshore substation.

"Reaching this milestone two months early is immensely satisfying for the project team and something which we are all very proud of."

"Throughout construction we’ve had to overcome more than our fair share of challenges, including particularly difficult weather conditions, which the team rose to and successfully overcome."