On October 30 2014 the West of Duddon Sands (WoDS) offshore wind farm was opened.
With an investment of € 2 billion, this offshore wind facility developed by Iberdrola, through its subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables, in a joint-venture with Dong Energy was commissioned more than two months ahead of schedule. Located approximately 20 kilometres off the Barrow-in-Furness coastline in North West England, the wind farm covers a total area of 67 square kilometres, has 108 Siemens turbines with 3.6MW unit capacity and has also seen more than 200 kilometres of undersea cables installed. The electricity generated initially connects in to an offshore substation specially designed by Iberdrola’s engineering subsidiary to withstand the area’s extreme weather conditions. The voltage from the turbines is increased and two export cables then take the electricity ashore to the onshore substation at Heysham, where the windfarm is connected to the UK national grid. The Operations and Maintenance base for the windfarm is a newly constructed facility in Barrow-in-Furness, which will support more than 40 jobs for at least the next 20 years.