Wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) Pacific Orca arrived some 27 kilometres off Suffolk in the afternoon hours of Sunday, 14 May to kick off the installation of the 56 Siemens 6MW turbines on the 336MW Galloper offshore wind farm.
Swire Blue Ocean’s jack-up left the Peel Ports Great Yarmouth earlier on Sunday, after being loaded with nacelles, blades, electrical modules, and the pre-assembled turbine towers at the port’s Outer Harbour.
Siemens Wind Power contracted Swire Blue Ocean to provide a WTIV for the Galloper project in November 2015. In August 2016, Siemens chose the Peel Ports Great Yarmouth as the assembly location and installation base for the Galloper project.
The installation of the wind turbines at the site was initially scheduled to start in the early summer but was pushed to May after GeoSea installed the last foundation at the site in late March, two months earlier than planned.
Development and construction of the GBP 1.5 billion Galloper offshore wind farm is led by innogy SE on behalf of the project partners, UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital.