Robin Rigg Wind Farm


Robin Rigg Wind Farm, Scotland's first offshore wind farm, was constructed by E.ON at Robin Rigg in the Solway Firth, a sandbank midway between the Galloway and Cumbrian coasts. The windfarm first generated power for test purposes on 9 September 2009. The wind farm was completed on 20 April 2010.

Description

60 Vestas V90-3MW wind turbines were installed, with an offshore electrical substation. Prysmian provided two 132 kV export cables each 12.5 km long to connect the wind farm to the on-shore substation. Two units were subsequently decommissioned in 2015 due to failures during installation. The 174 MW development provides enough electricity for around 117,000 households.
The windfarm employs around 40 people, most of whom are local to the area. It is operated from the Port of Workington. Local suppliers are used whenever possible, providing services including vessel management, fabrication, environmental monitoring, catering, industrial cleaning, inspection services and printing.
In the first year of commercial operation the wind farm was available to operate for over 98% of the time.
In March 2011 Robin Rigg became the first offshore wind farm to enter the OFTO regime with the two offshore and onshore export cables and the onshore 132kV substation being bought by Transmission Capital and Amber Infrastructure.