Sea Challenger from A2Sea installing turbines at Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm (photo: Roar Lindefjeld/Woldcam – Statoil)

Statoil reports that up to 6,000 homes in UK are now receiving electricity from the first producing wind turbine on Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm. When fully operational later in 2017 the offshore wind farm will provide electricity to over 400,000 homes.

After a successful installation of the first wind turbine in early January, operator Statoil and partners Masdar and Statkraft were able to set the first turbine in production on the 7 February delivering electricity to UK National Grid.

“This is a significant milestone for one of the largest offshore wind farms in Europe. I am particularly satisfied with the on time deliveries and the HSE performance so far,” says Margareth Øvrum, Statoil’s executive vice president for Technology, Projects and Drilling.

Sixy-seven foundations were installed on the Dudgeon Bank last year, along with the cables and the offshore substation that collects the power generated by the wind turbines.

This work involved as much as 2,000 vessel days and almost the same number is anticipated this year for the installation of turbines.

The Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm site is located 32 km offshore Norfolk, UK and, and is 20 km east of the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, where Statoil currently holds a 40% share. The Dudgeon Offshore Wind farm consists of 67 six-megawatt wind turbine generators with a total installed capacity of 402 MW producing 1.73 TWh/year – equivalent to the consumption of more than 400,000 UK households.

The GBP 1.5 billion Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm project is part of Statoil’s strategy is to gradually complement the oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions.

“Building a profitable renewable portfolio on the foundation of 40 years of oil and gas experience is a competitive advantage. We can leverage on our marine operations competence, our experience with complex projects and our supply chain. A lot of work remains, but seeing the first Dudgeon turbine producing electricity is very satisfying,” says Stephen Bull, Statoil’s senior vice president for offshore wind.

The installation of the remaining 66 wind turbine generators is expected to be completed by Q4/2017, when the wind farm will be fully operational.

Statoil is a major investor in the UK energy sector, and pursues a broad range of activities relating to energy production and sales in Britain, including the Mariner oil development offshore Aberdeen, the largest investment on the UK continental shelf in a decade. Statoil is a leading supplier of natural gas to UK providing more than 20% of the total gas demand.

Together with our partners we are developing an offshore wind portfolio with the capacity of providing over 1 million homes in Europe with renewable energy.

Statoil currently holds a 40% share in the Sheringham Shoal wind farm located offshore Norfolk, UK, which has been in production since 2012. The Hywind Scotland pilot park offshore Peterhead, Scotland, the world’s first floating wind farm, will come in production in late 2017.

In 2016 Statoil acquired 50% of the Arkona offshore wind farm in Germany, which will come in production in 2019. Statoil was also declared the provisional winner of the U.S. government’s wind lease sale offshore New York at the end of 2016.

Tags: Masdar, Statkraft, Statoil ASA