West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm installs first Siemens 3.6MW turbine

Danish group DONG Energy and ScottishPower Renewables have reached a milestone by installing a Siemens 3.6MW wind turbine at West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea.

Over the coming months, another 107 further turbines will be installed at the plant with completion scheduled for 2014. The project work recently hit the halfway mark on foundation installation on 27 September 2013.

West of Duddon Sands is a 50/50 joint venture between Dong Energy and ScottishPower Renewables.

DONG Energy wind power business vice president Henrik Scheinemann said that the company is very pleased to see the first turbine installed at this project, and it is a testament to the great work of the entire West of Duddon Sands teams that this first installation has gone so smoothly.

"This project is very important for DONG Energy; it is our eighth wind farm in the UK and when completed will take us past the mark of 2.4GW of constructed capacity, well on the way to reaching our target of 6.5GW by 2020," Scheinemann added.

The project work is being carried out by Swire Blue Ocean’s Pacific Orca and the A2SEA-owned Sea Installer.

Components are being shipped from the project’s pre-assembly palnt in Belfast Harbour.

ScottishPower Renewables project director Charlie Jordan said that this is another major milestone for the West of Duddon Sands project, and testament to the hard work of both ScottishPower Renewables and DONG Energy, as well as the contracting teams and suppliers working on the project.

"The operations at Belfast Harbour have been working well, and we are delighted with progress on the project," Jordan added.