Gwynt y Môr is part of the UK Round 2 for offshore wind and will consist of 160 Siemens wind turbines. The €2 billion project is being constructed by RWE Innogy, SWM – Municipal Utility Munich of Germany, and Siemens.

John Willcock, Director of Projects at Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd, says: “[H&W] will be using some design concepts from shipbuilding which are different from our other offshore substation platforms to date.”

The offshore wind turbines will be connected via 33 kV array cables to the two offshore substations, where Siemens will transform the power up to 132 kV for transmission to a new onshore substation at St Asaph.

The offshore wind farm will be 13 km off the North Wales coast. Construction will start toward the end of 2011, and it is expected to start electricity generation in 2013 with full completion in 2014. The offshore wind farm could produce an average of 1.95 TWh of electricity annually.