Construction hat-trick for £1.5billion Galloper project
17 May, 2017
  • First of 56 offshore wind turbines installed at Suffolk wind farm
  • Offshore substation successfully placed
  • Second and final export cable installation underway

 The Galloper Offshore Wind Farm team is celebrating a hat-trick of major construction milestones.  The first wind turbine is installed, the offshore substation is in place and installation of the second and final export cable is under way. Bringing a few busy weeks to an exciting climax, Siemens completed installation of the first 6MW Siemens’ turbine from the Swire Blue Ocean installation vessel Pacific Orca earlier today (16th of May 2017).

The offshore substation platform was also successfully placed this month on the 336MW wind farm, by Seaway Heavy Lifting’s Oleg Strashnov. And a third and significant development in the project was contractor VBNK starting the installation of the second export cable on May the 7th.

Toby Edmonds, Project Director of Galloper Wind Farm Limited, said:

“To reach three key milestones in the project simultaneously and see Galloper take shape after years of planning is a proud moment for all the team and the project partners.

“Installing the first turbine on an offshore wind farm is always a powerful moment. It’s a tribute to our project partner and turbine supplier, Siemens, who have worked hard with the Galloper team to prepare for this major project milestone.  We’re delighted the first turbine has been installed efficiently and safely.

“The remaining turbines will now be installed and the project will be completed early next year.”

Installation of the offshore substation, manufactured by Heerema at its fabrication base in Hartlepool on behalf of Alstom Petrofac Consortium, was completed in early May. Following the installation of the final export cable, Sizewell beach will be returned to its original condition in the summer.  The installation of the project’s offshore array cables which are being installed by the VBMS vessel, the Stemat Spirit, continues with 26 of 56 array cables currently installed. The turbines are being shipped from the purpose-built Siemens’ assembly base at Peel Ports, Great Yarmouth, where the towers are put together and prepared by a 70-strong workforce. Up to five turbines are being installed on each trip.

The construction of the Galloper project is being led on behalf of the project partners by innogy SE. innogy is making good progress on projects elsewhere in Europe. The turbine installation for the offshore wind farm Nordsee One 40 km north off the island of Juist is also well under way. Up to 20 of the 54 wind turbines are installed. Once completed, the Nordsee One wind farm will have an installed capacity of 332MW. In April 2016 the installation of the turbine foundations was completed. The substation was installed last summer, and the inter-array cable laying was successfully completed in September 2016. Nordsee One is owned by Northland Power Inc. (85%) and innogy SE (15%).