Frimley, 2013-May-17
Construction of first turbine at Gwynt y Môr wind farm
At 576MW, Gwynt y Môr is one of the largest offshore wind farms currently in construction in Europe. It is a shared investment between partners RWE Innogy, Stadtwerke München GmbH and Siemens. (1) Once fully operational, energy generation from Gwynt y Môr is expected to be equivalent to the average annual needs of around 400,000 homes, (2) a third of the total number of households in Wales. (3)
The installation marks a major milestone in the construction of the €2billion wind-farm, The first 3.6 megawatt Siemens turbine was fitted more than eight miles of the North Wales coast in Liverpool Bay, using the SeaJack vessel yesterday (Thursday 16 May).
Turbine installation is being carried out from the Port of Mostyn in Flintshire which has undergone extensive redevelopment to accommodate the new construction base. Through further multi-million pound investment, the port will also become the long term operations and maintenance base for the wind farm, creating over 100 new jobs, once Gwynt y Môr is completed in 2014.
Clark MacFarlane, managing director for Siemens Wind Power – Offshore in the UK said: “Gwynt y Môr represents a significant investment for Siemens in its UK wind energy portfolio consisting now of twelve offshore wind farms powered by Siemens technologies. As one of the major Round 2 installations Gwynt y Môr represents another step forward for the UK offshore industry. We are delighted that installation has now commenced and look forward to making significant progress over the coming months.”
RWE npower renewables’ Gwynt y Môr Project Director, Toby Edmonds said: “We’re very pleased to be able to mark such a significant milestone in the construction of our flagship Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm, the largest renewables project under construction in the RWE portfolio.
“Energy generation from our own domestic, limitless and renewable sources has been demonstrated to be of such importance to Wales and the UK’s future energy security, and Gwynt y Môr’s turbines will soon begin to make a significant contribution to that generation capacity.”
Since work began in 2010, Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm Limited has awarded
contracts worth more than £80million to companies in Wales.
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Contact for journalists:
Siemens plc
Rachel Odams, tel: 07808 824209
E-mail: rachel.odams@siemens.com
For further information and press pictures, please see: www.siemens.co.uk/press
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Siemens plc
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 170 years ago and now employs around 13,520 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £3.2 billion*. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry, infrastructure & cities and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
* Data includes intercompany revenue. Data may not be comparable with revenue reported in annual or interim reports.
RWE npower renewables
Karen Maurice, tel : 07557758184.
Gwynt y Môr public relations
E-mail: Karen.maurice@rwe.com
For further information about Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm see www.rwe.com/gwyntymor
Notes for editors
(1) Gwynt y Môr represents a total investment of more than EUR2 billion, shared between RWE npower renewables’ parent company RWE Innogy(60%); Stadtwerke München GmbH, Munich’s municipal utilities company (30%); and Siemens(10%).
(2) Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal is derived using wind speeds monitored in the local area. This enables a calculation to be made to estimate the average annual energy production for the site based on 160 turbines each of rated capacity 3.6 MW. The energy capture predicted and hence derived homes equivalent figures may change as further data are gathered. Equivalent homes supplied is based on annual electricity consumption per home of 4700 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household estimates and projections from the UK Statistics Authority.
(3) Office for National Statistics: The 2011 census states there were 1.3million households in Wales on census night.
