Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical has begun laying the inter-array cables at Gwynt y Môr, in Liverpool Bay. It is using the Polar Prince. The 33kv cables – manufactured by Norwegian company Draka – will connect the 160 turbines to the two offshore substations. Installation is due to continue into 2014.
The 576MW Gwynt y Môr project is a joint venture between RWE Innogy, Stadtwerke München and Siemens. RWE npower renewables’ project director, Toby Edmonds, said the start of array cable installation was "an important milestone".
Half of the foundations are already in place and installation of the 3.6MW turbines is scheduled to begin in April. First power is expected in the summer.
Electricity generated at Gwynt y Môr will be transmitted via the offshore substations and four subsea export cables, to a landing point at Pensarn, near Abergele, north Wales. From there, it will go via an 11km cable to a new substation near St Asaph and into the National Grid.
Earlier this month, the project owners announced that local communities will benefit from about £19m in funding over the wind farm's twenty-year lifespan.
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