First wind turbine installed 12 July 2010
On Monday 12 July 2010, at about 13.00 o'clock, just past noon, the first of the 51 turbines in the Walney 1 Offshore Wind Farm was installed.
The installation vessel Kraken left the port of Mostyn on Friday 9 July, loaded with two complete wind turbine sets (a total of 6 blades, 2 nacelles with a pre-installed hub and 4 tower sections) and jacked-up at the first location F02 in the southern part of the area. (See map showing turbine positions here .)

Kraken leaving Mostyn on 9 July 2010 with the first two wind turbines.

On Tuesday 12 July, the first turbine was installed. The operation included six major lifts. First, the two tower parts were placed. Then, the nacelle with a pre-installed hub. And finally, three lifts to install the blades.

The first of the 102 wind turbines in the Walney Offshore Windfarms.

The installation lasted 18 hours, as the main issue was to make sure the first turbine went up in a safe and secure manner, and the crew felt confident with handling the equipment to ensure that future operations are carried out safely. It is expected that the time needed for the installation process will be approximately 8-10 hours as the operation becomes routine, resulting in one to four wind turbines installed each week, as weather permits.

Kraken in operation jacked out of the water.

After the successful installation, Kraken has now changed position to F03 to install the second turbine. The weather in the area is a bit unstable, and the second installation is expected to take some time. After the second installation, Kraken will return to the harbor in Mostyn to transport and install two new turbine sets.

Full activity at the project base in Barrow but weather has shown its power
Installation of monopiles and transition pieces is still progressing, but the weather has shown its power on several occasions, bringing the activities to a temporary halt. At present, 35 monopiles as well as 33 transition pieces have been placed in position.

There is full activity at the project base in Barrow. Monopiles and transitions pieces are received and stored to be ready for installation as the weather permits.

Project base in Barrow, storing monopiles and yellow transition pieces.

All 51 monopiles for Walney 1 and a total of 40 transitions pieces have been received at the harbour. The production site for monopiles in Rostock, Germany, has already been shut down. In Lubmin, Germany, the remaining transition pieces are ready for transport, and the production site will be shut down in July, leaving the workers time for vacation.

Commissioning of the offshore substation
On 15 June 2010, the substation was placed offshore, and since then work has been intensive to commission the substation and prepare receipt of the export cable and the array cables. As the substation still isn't connected to the National Grid, two diesel generators on the transformer station provide power to perform tests and commissioning; and all systems have been tested.

Preparing for receipt of array cables and wind turbines
At the moment, the foundations are being finalised for installation of the wind turbines and array cables. Hence, earthing cables between monopiles and transition pieces are being installed; J-tubes are installed in final position. All turbines are fitted with cable tubes, also known as J-tubes. The purpose of the tubes is to protect and keep the cable in position at the transition piece between turbine, foundation and seabed in which the cable is flushed. Davit cranes are put to use and diving activities such as installation of bell mouth and seal are carried out.

The cable barge - Stemat 82 - has arrived for the offshore installation of array cables, and is currently conducting trials before the actual cable laying.

Installation of export cable
Installation of the 45 kilometer export cable commenced at Heysham at the end of June. The offshore cable connects the offshore substation with the onshore cable via a connection at the shore side transition joint pit. The offshore cable is a single wire armour three core 132kV cable complete with a 48 core fibre optic cable. The cable will be placed approximately 2 metres below the seabed and run the full distance as a single piece up in the platform 'J' tube.

The length of the submarine export cable is approximately 45,000 metres from the offshore substation to the shore at Heysham.

The blue line marks the offshore cable for Walney 1.

Stemat Spirit beaching near Heysham.

The 45 kilometer cable is placed in a cable carousel on the cable laying vessel Stemat Spirit. Due to the strong tide, it was necessary to coordinate the activities carefully with the tide, as operations began near Heysham. At low tide, the Stemat Spirit was beaching on the seabed. Operations were only possible at high tide, and laying of the cable proceeded in stages away from the shore, following the tidal movements.

Here the plough is being prepared for the pull back to the end of the cable duct.

When in operation, the cable plough places the cable approximately 2 metres into the seabed.

The Walney Offshore Windfarms The Walney Offshore Windfarms project is located approximately 15km west of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. The project consists of Walney 1 and Walney 2 each with 51 - 3.6MW turbines, giving a total capacity of the Walney project of 367.2MW. The rotor diameter of the turbines is 107m for Walney 1 and 120m for Walney 2, with a maximum height of 150m from blade tip to sea level. The total area of the development is some 73km2.