Offshore works are due to start this month on the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm, located 13km off the Welsh coast. The heavy lifting vessel Stanislav Yudin will be on site between April and December 2012 to install the foundations for the wind farm’s 160 turbines and two offshore substations.

Onshore works are also progressing well. In March, cabling works at Pensarn were completed which will enable the wind farm’s four subsea export cables to be brought ashore. When the wind farm is operational, the electricity it produces will travel through 13km of export cable and another 11km of onshore underground cable into the new onshore substation at St Asaph Business Park.

RWE npower renewables, who are managing the project, have contracted Siemens to construct both the onshore and offshore substations. Wilding Construction is delighted to be managing the onshore substation’s civil works as well as providing technical assessment and project engineer services.

Wilding says: ‘We are always pleased to report good progress on projects we are working on. With the start of offshore works, Gwynt y Môr has reached a key milestone in its journey to becoming operational. Scheduled for completion in 2014, it will be one of Europe’s largest offshore wind farms and generate enough clean energy to power up to 400,000 homes.’

Sources: North Wales Weekly News, Liverpool Echo and Wirral News