By Renewable Energy Focus staff

The wind turbine is the first of 30 to be installed by the wind turbine installation vessel SeaJack for Vattenfall. The offshore wind farm is expected to have its last wind turbine installed in the second half of 2011.

Vattenfall’s Project Manager for Ormonde, Matthew Green says: “Safely and carefully installing a 661 tonne, 153 metre wind turbine, in the Irish Sea is a world class engineering achievement. I would like to thank everyone on the project for their professionalism as we now look to make good progress towards completing the project in 2011.”

Frank Zimmermann, Head of the Offshore Business Unit of REpower Systems AG, adds: "We had the opportunity to install our first offshore wind turbines in the UK, Germany and Belgium, far shore and in deep water. Benefitting from this experience we are now taking the first step towards large-scale wind farms at an industrial level, with installing 30 turbines in Ormonde.

“One particular challenge is to coordinate the numerous different parties out on the open water together with Vattenfall. Here, the profound and detailed planning of methods and interface handling, done over the last almost two years, is paying off!"