World’s largest offshore wind farm now online

Walney Extension, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, officially began operations on September 5 at a ceremony in Barrow in the north-west of England.

The wind farm, which is owned by Ørsted and its partners PFA and PKA, is the first project to use wind turbines from two different manufacturers.

The 659MW project, owned by Ørsted (50 per cent) and its partners, the Danish pension funds PKA (25 per cent) and PFA (25 per cent), leapfrogs the 630MW London Array to become the world’s largest operational wind farm.

Walney Extension’s 87 wind turbines can generate enough green energy to power almost 600,000 UK homes. Covering an area of 145 square kilometres in the Irish Sea, the project becomes Ørsted’s 11th operational offshore wind farm in the UK.

Walney Extension features 40 MHI Vestas 8MW wind turbines and a further 47 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 three further Ørsted offshore wind farms, i.e. Barrow, Walney, and West of Duddon Sands.

The completion of Walney Extension brings Ørsted’s total capacity operating out of Barrow up to 1.5GW.