Galloper Wind Farm Limited (GWFL) has agreed a lease in principle with Harwich International Port for an Operations & Maintenance (O&M) base for the 336MW Galloper offshore wind farm.
GWFL is currently pursuing planning permission in relation to this, Toby Edmonds, Project Director, Galloper Wind Farm, said.
“Following the redesign of the project in 2015 we considered a number of options in relation to the Operations & Maintenance base and Harwich meets the project’s specific requirements,” Edmonds said.
”Galloper Wind Farm is also supported by our Offshore Construction Coordination Base at the Port of Lowestoft, our onshore substation base in Sizewell, and the turbine assembly base, currently in construction, at Great Yarmouth.”
Galloper is an extension of the existing and fully operational Greater Gabbard wind farm off the coast of Suffolk. The wind farm will comprise 56 Siemens wind turbines, each with a capacity of 6MW, installed some 27km off the coast.
The offshore construction phase started in June 2016 and is expected to be completed in late 2017. The wind farm is expected to commence operations in March 2018.
The wind farm is being constructed by innogy on behalf of the GWFL, a GBP 1.5 billion joint equity partnership of 25% each between innogy UK, UK Green Investment Bank, Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital.