Name and Location
Galloper offshore wind farm project, UK.

Client
The project is a joint venture between RWE npower renewables and SSE Renewables.

Project Description
The project involves the development of an offshore wind farm, off the Suffolk coast, adjacent to the fully operational Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm (GGOWF), with an installed capacity of up to 504 MW.

The offshore site will include:
• up to 140 wind turbines arranged into three key areas, depending on the individual capacity of each turbine, with a maximum blade tip height up to 195 m and the bulk of the turbines being located on the seaward side of the existing GGOWF;
• up to four offshore platforms for electricity substations, collector stations and/or accommodation;
• up to three offshore meteorological masts for measuring wind speeds and directions, with a maximum tip height of up to 130 m;
• buried subsea intra- and inter-array cables, linking the turbines to the offshore electricity platforms; and
• up to three buried subsea export cables, which will follow a generally north-westerly route and will link the offshore substations to the onshore underground joint bays, with landfall on the Suffolk coast, just south of Sizewell. The Galloper wind farm (GWF) will also include several onshore elements to allow the energy produced by the project to feed into the national electricity grid. These include:
• joint bays located south of Sizewell Gap, where onshore and offshore cables are connected to each other;
• a cable corridor, which will accommodate the onshore cables from the joint bays to the GWF substation compound;
• the electricity substation, which will be located in a generally westerly direction from Sizewell and adjacent to the recently installed GGOWF substation, comprising up to two compounds occupying an area of 3.1 ha;
• a cable corridor to accommodate 132 kV underground cables, connecting the transmission compound with the existing cables between National Grid’s Sizewell and Leiston A substations;
• a cable corridor to accommodate 400 kV underground cables between the transmission compound and two sealing-end compounds;
• up to two sealing-end compounds, each about 0.2 ha in size, which connect the 400 kV cables to overhead wires for onward connection to two existing adjacent transmission towers (pylons), both being north of Sizewell Gap and east/south-east of the GGOWF substation;
• new wires, connecting upwards from the sealing-end compounds to extended outer arms of the two existing adjacent transmission towers;
• temporary compound(s) to be used during onshore construction works;
• tree removal and planting, as well as landscaping around the substation and sealing end compounds;
• construction of temporary and permanent access(es) to the GWF compound, transmission compound and sealing-end compounds (not in the public highway);
• landscaping in the vicinity of the proposals; and
• temporary access along Sizewell beach from the existing beach car park area.

Value
Not stated.

Duration
Commissioning is expected in 2017.

Latest Developments
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has granted development consent for Galloper Wind Farm.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
SSE Renewables, tel +441738 456 000.
RWE npower renewables, tel +44 845 078 2941 or email galloperwindfarm@rwe.com.