RWE Renewables has delivered first power from the 857MW Triton Knoll offshore wind farm off east England.
The generation milestone follows the successful delivery of onshore and offshore electrical infrastructure on schedule, despite the construction challenges during the coronavirus pandemic, said the German company.
The project began installing 90 turbines in January and has since completed the required commissioning activities on the project’s transmission system to enable the export of power to the UK National Grid for the first time.
First generation is being followed by a period of “rigorous testing and commissioning”, while the project continues to install the remainder of its 90 Vestas V164-9.5 MW turbines.
Installation is being carried out by DEME Offshore using the jack-up vessel Wind Osprey, provided by Cadeler.
RWE Renewables chief commercial officer Tom Glover said: “Achieving first power at Triton Knoll reinforces our position as a leading player in offshore wind and demonstrates our commitment to helping deliver the UK’s ambition to grow offshore wind capacity to 40 gigawatts by 2030.
“Today’s milestone is the result of many years’ collaboration with our local and national supply chain partners, and local communities with whom we have worked hard to deliver local benefits, jobs and investments, while investing in new renewable energy for over 800,000 UK homes.”
Triton Knoll offshore wind farm is located over 32 kilometres off the Lincolnshire coast. It is jointly owned by RWE (59%), J-Power (25%) and Kansai Electric Power (16%), with RWE leading both the wind farm’s construction and the long-term operation and maintenance works, on behalf of the project partners. Total planned investment volume amounts to approximately £2 billion.
Final project completion is expected in early 2022.