Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm

Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm is a 172 MW wind farm about 7km off the Clacton-on-Sea coast in the Northern Thames Estuary.The 108MW Gunfleet Sands 1 wind farm gained planning consent in 2003/4; in 2006 Dong Energy acquired the project and submitted an application for a second 64MW windfarm Gunfleet Sands 2 adjacent to the first, which received consent in 2008. Construction of both wind farms using Siemens Wind Power SWT-3.6-107 took place between 2008 and 2010.In 2010 planning began on a demonstration project Gunfleet Sands 3, used to test Siemens' 6MW wind turbine model; two 6MW turbines were installed in 2013.Gunfleet Sands 1 & 2Gunfleet Sands 1 & 2 are located 7 km south east of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, UK; in water at depths of 2to (spring tidal range ~4.6m); Gunfleet 1 consists of 30 turbines in a 5x6 array, whilst Gunfleet 2 consists of a 9x2 array of turbines directly adjacent to the southeast; the installed capacities are 108 and 64MW respectively. The average wind speed is 8.8m/s at 60m elevation.The offshore turbines connect to a 33kV offshore substation, which steps up the transmission voltage to 132kV; the export cable makes landfall at Holland Haven (nr. Holland-on-Sea), and underground cables connect it to the National Grid at the Cooks Green substation.DevelopmentDevelopment of an offshore wind farm site near Clacton-on-Sea began in 1996 under Windmaster Developments; Windmaster was acquired by Enron in 2000, and passed to General Electric (GE Wind Energy) in 2002. A Round 1 concession for the development was awarded in 2001, and planning consents obtained in 2003/4.