Offshore Wind Farm Cable Landed Off Coast of Wales
Global Marine Energy lands first export cable from 'Cable Enterprise' at Gwynt y Môr 576 MW offshore wind farm.
The cable was landed by GME’s recently launched vessel, Cable Enterprise, and is the first of four export cables to be installed at the project site. Each of the export cables are between 18km and 22km in length linking the north coast of Wales to the offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay.
Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm is one of the largest currently in construction in Europe and is being built by RWE npower renewables. The project is a shared investment between partners RWE Innogy, Stadtwerke München GmbH, and Siemens AG. Once operational, Gwynt y Môr will have an installed capacity of 576MW. It will be capable of generating enough energy to meet the average annual energy needs of around 400,000 homes.
Over the next few days Cable Enterprise will make its way along the planned burial route to the second end at the offshore sub station. Once the cable is fully installed it will return to Pensarn beach to begin installing the next export cable.
Unlike traditional vessels, the Enterprise is designed to ground on the beach, allowing operations to be carried out to the high water mark, seamlessly continuing the installation where shore based vehicles finish.
In total, Global Marine Energy with Cable Enterprise will lay four 132kV export cables with built in fibre optics, from onshore to two offshore substations on the Gwynt y Môr wind farm.