DUDGEON OFFSHORE WIND FARM

DUDGEON OFFSHORE WIND FARM Dudgeon Wind Farm Completion

PRODUCTION: Emily White

// The pioneering installation of 67 Siemens 6MW wind turbines at the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm has excelled in efficiency by completing on time and well-under the projected £1.5 million budget agreed when the lucrative investment decision was made in 2014.

Located 20 miles off the coast of Cromer, a small seaside town in North Norfolk, the wind farm is now fully operational and will soon

be providing electricity to 410,000 homes across England.

The project was aided to completion by the Sea Challenger, a Danish crew vessel from A2SEA on behalf of joint owners Statoil, Masdar and Statkraft.

“We would like to send a special thanks and congratulations to the entire team behind the operation for a smooth project execution as well as an outstanding safety performance,” said Michael Glavind, CEO at A2SEA.

Despite the scale of the project, substantial investment has been made to mitigate the impact of the construction on the surrounding community. The Dudgeon Community Fund was established to support a wide range of local charities and voluntary schemes that have been directly affected by the offshore construction. Necton Parish Council and Necton First Responders are among those to receive sizeable donations. The project has also invested £2.5 million in local schools, launching a new educational initiative for secondary school pupils across Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk and Breckland.

The construction and completion of the wind farm is set to be a vital boost for the local economy, securing trade for the next 25 years as ships come and go into the port of Yarmouth to service the farm. Graham Plant, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said: “For us that means employment in Great Yarmouth. It means a supply chain is going to be needed to help keep that

business alive and keep going.”

There is a growing interest in the sector as leaders in the gas and oil industry seek to expand into the renewable market. Advances in technology, increasing deployment and modulating costs are key incentives to make wind an alternative power source and could potential ‘outcompete’ traditional energy suppliers. Technological advances in the sector are certainly proving wind to be a viable alternative; it is estimated that moving forward to 2030, the installed capacity of offshore wind in Europe will increase from 12GW to 70GW.

Statoil, one of the three companies behind the Dudgeon project, are already making waves in the sector, bolstering an impressive renewable portfolio. Alongside the Dudgeon site, further wind farms at Sheringham Shaol, Arkona in Germany and Hywind Scotland have either reached completion or are in the final stages of production, with the potential to supply more than one million homes with power.

DUDGEON OFFSHORE WIND FARM

+44 (0) 1493 841700 dudgeonoffshorewind.co.uk