Ormonde offshore wind farm construction update (Cumbria)

Landmark achieved as first jackets installed at Ormonde wind farm.

The construction of the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is now well underway. The pre-piling was completed before schedule on the 12th July and the first jacket foundations left from the BiFab manufacturing facility in Methil, Fife at 6am on the 13th July. The jackets were transported via barge in groups of four and arrived at the wind farm on 22nd July.

Each jacket is 45 metre high and weighs approximately 500 tonnes. Or putting it another way, each individual jacket will weigh as much 70 African elephants and if all thirty jackets were stacked end-to-end they would be 13 times higher than the Forth Rail Bridge.

The completed wind farm will comprise thirty wind turbines and the first four jackets have been installed successfully using the crane ship the Rambiz. In addition, an electrical sub-station for the project will sit on one of the jackets. The colossal steel structures, sitting on the sea bed fixed by four steel ‘pins, known as piles, will act as giant sub sea platforms and will provide support for the individual wind turbines.

In the Port of Barrow work on the Operations and Maintenance building on Belfast berth, Ramsden Dock Road has commenced and the substation platform fit out works are underway on Berth 8.