Ormonde

The Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is currently being built in the Irish Sea, 10km off Barrow-In-Furness. On completion the wind farm will comprise 30 RePower 5M wind turbines with the capacity of 150 megawatts and expected to produce around 500 gigawatt hours of electricity every year.

This is sufficient to supply the equivalent of approximately 100,000 homes per year with clean power. The turbines will cover an area of 8.7km2.
The Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is now in the construction phase with onshore works having commenced in autumn 2009. The development work is due for completion during 2011 and first power is expected later that year.

Onshore Works

• Onshore construction will take place at both Barrow and Heysham. At Heysham, the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is connected to the National Grid. The grid connection requires cables to be buried underground from Halfmoon Bay to the substation commenced in November 2009 and will continue throughout 2010.
• The Wind Farm Operations and Maintenance (O&M) facility will be located on the dock-side in Barrow Harbour. The construction of the new O&M building and quayside facilities will be complete during 2010.

Offshore Works

• Offshore construction commenced in May 2010. Construction and commissioning work will continue until the end of 2011. 

Benefits to the local area

The Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm project is helping to secure many jobs across the UK, among the UK suppliers are Fife–based Burntisland Fabrications for its innovative steel platform and BiFab steel jackets, Harland & Wolff for the logistic and assembly services for the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm as well as local contractors, for example the Neil Martin Group, Askam Construction, Agrilek and R G Parkins of Lancaster.

Over the next year the project team will be continuing to look at opportunities to use local facilities and personnel. During the operational phase a number of long-term jobs will be created at the control, operations and maintenance base which will be built within Barrow port.

Environmental Monitoring

An environmental monitoring program is undertaken prior to, during and following the construction works. Vattenfall works hard to keep environmental disturbance to a minimum, ensuring that as little disturbance as possible is experienced by sensitive species such as lizards, slow worms and bird life. There is also a programme to mitigate disturbance for marine mammals.