12 complete turbines installed
12 of the 51 turbines comprising the Walney 1 have been installed.

Weather is king
All offshore operations are fully dependant on the weather conditions and will require a thorough planning in order to utilise the weather windows suitable for installation activities. Wind and waves will determine the progress in the installation. For wind turbine installation, the operational crane limit is typically a wind speed of 10 m/s, however, only about 8 m/s for installation of blades.

 
 
Six to seven days' installation cycle
Under average weather conditions, the installation vessel Kraken will be able to install two turbines every week, maintaining a six to seven days' installation cycle for the two turbine sets it can transport on each tour from Mostyn. The progress of the installation is of course very much affected by the weather conditions. Based on the average weather conditions in the area, the expectations are that the installation sequence will be affected in the winter period, reducing the installation process to one turbine a week..

Average and real weather
One thing is the statistical average, another is the real condition on the site, and it can vary a lot. The project was favoured with calm weather conditions during the first half of 2010. A recent report from the wind consultancy Garrad Hassan has concluded that UK wind yields have dropped this year to perhaps a 1-in-15-year event due to stable high pressure. According to the report, energy levels from wind dropped 27.8% in the first quarter compared with the average and 18.3% in the second quarter compared with a 5% drop in the last quarter of 2009 and a 15.7% increase in the third quarter of 2009.

Bird surveys
Bird surveys have been carried out at Walney Offshore Windfarm on a regular basis since the start of the project several years ago, and they continue during the construction phase. In July, August and September, environmental specialists CMACS Ltd. have visited the Walney, Ormonde and West of Duddon Sands wind farm sites to carry out boat-based surveys. Preliminary results show that the number and species of birds have not changed during the construction period relative to previous years.

Future plans – testing of radar survey
In October 2010, there will be a radar survey trial, using equipment on Walney Island to see whether migrating pink-footed goose and whooper swan can be detected in conditions of poor visibility and at night. If successful, the setup can be used next autumn to observe how these birds respond to the presence of the wind farms. Surveys using human observers have shown that birds react and avoid wind farms at good visibility. Visual observations cannot be made at night and in fog, however, so here radar is almost the only option.

Export cable 
Up till now the installation vessel Stemat Spirit has placed 16 kilometres of the 45-kilometre long cable, running the full distance from the offshore substation to the onshore substation in Heysham, and the export cable has been successfully installed over three gas pipes under its way to Heysham. 

  The offshore cable is a single wire armour three core 132kV cable complete with a 48 core fibre optic cable.

During the process, the cable is placed approximately 2 metres below the seabed. On the route, the cable will cross some areas with extremely hard soil. As a fall back option, it will be possible to place the cable temporarily on the seabed in order to secure that the cable is in place for the commissioning of the wind farm. The unburied cable will naturally be buried afterwards.

  Stemat Spirit has placed 18 kilometres of the
45-kilometre long export cable.

Onshore cable for Walney 1
The onshore installation work for Walney 1 is completed, and the refitting of the fences is ongoing. However,  a lot of people are still testing the systems as part of the commissioning.
We expect to have the major part of all commissioning in place by 1 October 2010, though the energisation and the stage 2 commissioning are planned for 1 November 2010 where we expect the export cable to the offshore substation to be in place.

Onshore cabling and substation construction for Walney 2
The Walney 2 onshore cabling work and substation construction have begun at Cleveleys and will proceed for the next ten months with expected energisation of the onshore substation on 1 August 2011.
Installation of the ducting has started at four places on the cable route.

Boreholes are being excavated at important locations like the sea-defence wall and the other locations where the ducts will be installed by HDD drilling rather than open-cut excavation. The borehole testing establishes ground conditions and the ground profile that the drill will have to go through and helps to establish a route/depth for the drilling.

 
Construction of the onshore substation is ongoing with the excavation of soil prior to preparation for the piling works which is due to take place imminently. 
More details on the onshore cabling for Walney 2: http://www.visitcleveleys.co.uk/windfarm/

 

   This is probably a permanent member of the crew
- It is a safety test dummy.

Walney 2
All contracts are in place for Walney 2, and the valuable experiences gained so far from Walney 1 areis used in the detailed planning process.  

Walney 2 will be an almost identical installation; however, the installation process will be more intense. The first signs of the installation will appear around mid- February 2011, where the first filter stones will be placed on the 51 turbine positions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.