Redcar wind farm work halted as officials free rig  

Credit:  by Lindsey Sampson, Evening Gazette | www.gazettelive.co.uk 11 August 2012 ~~

Construction work on Redcar’s controversial wind farm has been halted after a leg on an specialist jack-up vessel became stuck in mud.

Officials are now trying to free the part so that work on the multi-million pound 27-turbine windfarm can restart.

The project is being headed by EDF Energy Renewables, which confirmed that one of the legs of the mobile platform became embedded in soft mud on the seabed, preventing the retraction and movement of the vessel.

EDF Energy Renewables is working with contractor Van Oord UK to free it.

And bosses say construction work will continue as soon as it is resolved – although they say they don’t yet know how long that will take.

Despite initial problems with the development, the work had been going well until this latest hitch.

Four years ago, Redcar and Cleveland Council lost a High Court bid to stop the development.

The authority launched the legal action after receiving protests from 6,500 residents.

And following work starting on the construction in February, the noise from piling equipment was causing shockwaves in Redcar, with residents complaining of being woken by the sound of “constant banging”.

When that work finished in June, the Gazette reported how the first construction phase had been completed and preparations were under way for the installation of the turbines.

A spokesman for EDF Energy Renewables said: “Before this happened we had made good progress on the scheme, so we hope any delays can be overcome when we resume work, subject to favourable weather conditions.” The wind farm is being built in three rows, each with nine turbines.

When complete, the 2.3MW turbines will be capable of producing 62 megawatts of electricity – enough low carbon energy to power up to 40,000 households.