Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm

Gunfleet Sands 1 & 3
The farm from a passing ship, 30 September 2010
Country	England, United Kingdom
Location	Northern Thames Estuary 7 km (4.3 mi) off Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
Coordinates	51°44′22″N 1°10′28″E / 51.73944°N 1.17444°E / 51.73944; 1.17444
Status	Operational
Construction began	2008
Commission date	2010
Owners	Orsted (51%) Marubeni Corporation / Bank of Japan (remainder)
Wind farm
Type	Offshore
Power generation
Units operational	48
Make and model	Siemens Wind Power SWT-3.6-107
Nameplate capacity	172MW
Capacity factor	~30-35%
External links
Website	www.dongenergy.com/gunfleetsands/Pages/Index.aspx
Commons	Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

Wind farm layout

Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm is a 172 MW wind farm about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) off the Clacton-on-Sea coast in the Northern Thames Estuary.

The 108 MW Gunfleet Sands 1 wind farm gained planning consent in 2003/4; in 2006 DONG Energy (now Ørsted) acquired the project and submitted an application for a second 64 MW windfarm Gunfleet Sands 2 adjacent to the first, which received consent in 2008. Construction of both mounting Siemens Wind Power SWT-3.6-107 turbines took place between 2008 and 2010.

In 2010 planning began on a demonstration project Gunfleet Sands 3, used to test Siemens' 6 MW wind turbine model; two such turbines were installed in 2013.