Ormonde

This offshore wind farm located 10 kilometres west of Barrow-In-Furness is now moving into its construction phase with onshore works commencing in autumn 2010.

This 30 turbine, 150MW project was given the go-ahead in September 2008 on behalf of The RT. Hon John Hutton MP, Secretary of State for the then Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Currently, the sub-station at Heysham is being upgraded to allow the wind farm to connect to the National Grid in 2012. Next year foundations work will commence and later 30 RePower 5M wind turbines will be delivered and installed via an assembly point in Belfast.

The Ormonde Wind Farm will use the innovative steel jackets manufactured by Fife-based Burntisland Fabrications for its foundations. The 'BiFab' jackets have been recently installed at the ground-breaking Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm, off Germany, which is a joint venture involving Vattenfall and other partners.

Ormonde Wind Farm was originally conceived as a hybrid project by Eclipse Energy which would help deliver higher recovery rates for the nearby Ormonde gas field. Following its acquisition by Vattenfall in autumn 2008, Vattenfall has made good progress with the development of the wind farm and is currently assessing the feasibility of the hybrid concept.