Siemens wins wind turbine contract

13 August, 2008 Siemens has won a contract to connect the UK's Greater Gabbard wind farm to the power grid, it has been confirmed.

Siemens has won a contract to connect the UK's Greater Gabbard wind farm to the power grid, it has been confirmed.

The German engineering company beat US firm Fluor Ltd to the £66 million deal to provide the engineering capabilities that are required in order to connect the world's largest offshore windfarm to the grid.

The company is building the farm in partnership with Airtricity, the wind power arm of Scottish and Southern Energy, and a company that has already voiced its desire to create a Europe-wide green power grid.

Greater Gabbard will eventually consist of 140 turbines, placed just 25km off the coast of Suffolk.

Capable of generating 3.6MW each, the turbines will generate an overall power supply of 504MW.

The grid connection point will be based on land, but Siemens will need to build two substations at sea to collect the power generated by their own turbines, and one further substation on land.

Expected to be finished by 2011, the wind farm will remain the world's biggest until the London Array plan is completed, and will create the environmental equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road.