page_title: Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm
section_title: Planning, funding and design
hierarchical_section_title: Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm / Burbo Bank Extension / Planning, funding and design
caption_attribution_description: English: Svanen, lifting ship, involved with construction of Burbo Banks Offshore Windfarm Extension off the Wirral
context_page_description: The Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm is a 348 MW offshore wind farm located on the Burbo Flats in Liverpool Bay on the west coast of the UK in the Irish Sea. It consists of an original 90 MW wind farm commissioned in 2007 and a 258 MW extension completed in 2017.
  The wind farm was developed in the 2000s by SeaScape Energy, which was acquired by DONG Energy in 2005. A 25 turbine installation using Siemens Wind Power 3.6 MW turbines was constructed from 2005, and officially opened in 2007. A further 32 8 MW turbines were constructed in 2016–17.
context_section_description: In 2009 the Crown Estate announced that wind farm operators could apply for extensions to their Round 1 or Round 2 offshore wind farms; Dong Energy identified Burbo Bank as a potential site and began consultation on a ~90 km² (35 sq mi) extension westwards of the original wind farm. Between 2009 and 2010 the area of the site was reduced to the north increase clearance from the shipping lanes to the Port of Liverpool; to the south and to the west, reducing potential impact on recreational sailing activities and on certain species of sea bird, and due to potential conflicts with ship anchoring sites; also reducing the visual impact from land. In April 2010 the Crown Estate awarded an area of 40 km² (15 sq mi) for lease.
  Water depths in the area are between 6 and 13 metres (20 and 43 ft). The sea bed consisted primarily of sand. The underlying geology is sand overlaying clay overlaying mudstone. Samples within the turbine area showed sand followed by clay down to around 30m before weak mudstone was found.
  The initial cable export route and grid connection identified was one making landfall near to the existing Burbo Bank land connection, and connected to a 275 kV substation in Birkenhead; subsequently a potential grid connection at the 400 kV Deeside substation (near Deeside Power Station, Wales) was identified; and later a connection with landfall at Ffrith Beach, (nr. Prestatyn, Wales) to an extension of the new Bodelwyddan 400 kV substation under construction for the Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm. In 2011 the developer reached an agreement with the National Grid to use to a connection near the Bodelwyddan substation.
  The planned export cable route crossed a number of pre-existing cables and pipelines: a set of pipelines related to the Liverpool Bay oil and gas field, connecting the Douglas Complex to landfall were crossed in the Mid-Hoyle channel the export cable route also ran close to the North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm export cable; and crossed the 500 MW East–West Interconnector, as well as the planned route of the 2000 MW Western HVDC Link.
  Initial expectations were for construction to start in early 2015, and be complete by early 2017, subject to final specifications; neither foundation nor turbine type was specified, an offshore substation to step up the inter turbine voltage (either 33 or 66 kV) to an export voltage of either 132 or 275 kV, connection to the National Grid would be made at 400 kV, stepped up at an onshore substation at Bodelwyddan.
  The wind farm extension received contract for difference renewable energy subsidy funding from the UK government in April 2014, with a strike price of £150 per MWh (2012 prices). Dong made the decision to proceed with construction of the wind farm in December 2014.
  DONG Energy (Orsted) sold half of the wind farm extension to KIRKBI A/S (Lego holding company) and Danish pension fund PKA for £660 million in February 2016.
caption: Svanen, lifting ship, Burbo Banks Offshore Windfarm Extension
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3200", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.03", "Image DateTime": "2016:08:07 19:21:51", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "218", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3738", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3890", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2000", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:07:13 18:40:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:07:13 18:40:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "230", "EXIF SubSecTime": "40", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "40", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "40", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4147", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2772", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "6016", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "4000", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3590", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "345", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "271a7c43ff0a5e153af5b1115ccd9fef"}