World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm Opens

Published Sep 8, 2018 8:21 PM by The Maritime Executive

The world’s largest operational offshore wind farm, Walney Extension, was officially opened last week.

The Walney Extension is located in the Irish Sea - approximately 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the Walney Island coast in Cumbria and covers an area of 145 square kilometers. Its total capacity is 659MW, enough to power almost 600,000 U.K. homes.

The 87-turbine project, owned by Ørsted (50 percent) and its partners, the Danish pension funds PKA (25 percent) and PFA (25 percent), leapfrogs London Array to become the world’s largest operational wind farm.

It is Ørsted’s eleventh operational offshore wind farm in the U.K. It is also the first windfarm to use turbines from two manufacturers: 47 MHI Vestas 8MW wind turbines and 40 Siemens Gamesa 7MW wind turbines.

Construction of Walney Extension was co-ordinated from Ørsted’s West Coast Hub, at the Port of Barrow, which will now become home to the project’s operations and maintenance team. The West Coast Hub also services Ørsted's Barrow, Walney and West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farms.