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Walney 1 51 turbines now in production. Go to this link for more information..

in 2011, Walney Offshore Windfarm (known as WOW), supplying green energy to the UK, was built in the Irish Sea and part of it was connected by a cable to shore at Cleveleys, which then went underground to Thornton.

For some years we’ve been familiar at Thornton-Cleveleys with the Barrow Offshore Windfarm – with the graceful sails turning against some fantastic sunsets. They were joined bythe 102 turbines known as Walney Offshore Windfarm during the end of 2010 and the early part of 2011. Located approx 15km west of Barrow-in-Furness the first one was installed on 12 July 2010 and the farm can just be seen on the distant horizon - to the left of the original Barrow turbines.

The windfarm is built in two phases - Walney 1 and Walney 2 - with 51 turbines in each phase, each one capable of generating 3.6MW of electricity and a staggering total of 367.2MW which would be enough to power 320,000 homes. The maximum height of the turbines is 150m from blade tip to sea level - 30m taller than the Barrow ones and only 8m (24’) shorter than Blackpool Tower!

In the summer of 2011, a cable barge docked offshore at Cleveleys and then berthed on the beach to lay the power connection or ‘export cable’ which joins Walney 2 to land. It was laid in one piece underwater by a plough attached to the barge which places the cable approx 2m deep into the seabed. It’s an armoured 132kv power cable, complete with a 48 core fibre optic cable which provides communication to the windfarm.

A huge cofferdam was built against the seawall to enable the cable to be buried under the beach in front of Thornton Gate. The cable then continues underground on a route to Hillhouse Industrial Estate where a new sub-station has been built to transfer the power into the National Grid. The open cut installation of the cable was done first, starting in the autumn of 2010, and the beach interface works following in the spring of 2011. The whole project was documented through this portal giving the general public who were affected, along with people who were just interested, weekly updates complete with photographs and information about what was happening next.

You can find out everything you want to know about the project through this archive, with the news section documenting the project bit by bit, and lots of other associated information on other pages.

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