RWE commissions half of all turbines at 576-MW Welsh offshore wind park

Sep 3, 2014 - RWE Innogy UK said on Wednesday it had commissioned 81 of the 160 turbines at its 576-MW Gwynt y Mor wind farm off the North Wales coast.

The renewable energy unit of German utility RWE AG (ETR:RWE) now expects the final commissioning of the wind park to take place over the winter months. “We hope to have all 160 turbines commissioned this side of Christmas but with the impact that the winter weather can have on our programme, it may be the early part of 2015 before the wind farm is fully operational,” project director Toby Edmonds said in a press release.

The wind project, worth over GBP 2 billion (USD 3.3bn/EUR 2.5bn), will be able to produce enough electricity to meet the annual power needs of about 400,000 households, or around a third of the total number of homes in Wales. The facility consists of 3.6-MW turbines made by Germany’s Siemens AG (FRA:SIE). The scheme includes an onshore substation near St Asaph in North Wales.

To date, the construction of the wind farm has helped infuse more than GBP 660 million into the UK supply chain and provided jobs for almost 2,500 people, the company mentioned.

RWE Innogy holds a 60% stake in the project, German utility Stadtwerke Muenchen (SWM) owns 30% and Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) has the remaining 10%.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.646/EUR 1.251)

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