West of Duddon Sands Offshore Wind Farm

The West of Duddon Sands (WoDS) offshore wind farm is located 14 kilometres southwest of Walney Island off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, England. It has 108 turbines supplied by Siemens with a unit capacity of 3.6 MW, giving it a total installed capacity of 389 MW and ensuring clean, renewable energy for more than 270,000 UK homes. 

West of Duddon Sands, which involved an investment of €2 billion, was inaugurated in October 2014 and, as Iberdrola’s Executive Chairman Ignacio Galán explained during the event, "it is the first offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom to be built using the most advanced methods and technologies". A new terminal in the port of Belfast especially designed for the storage and assembly of foundations and wind turbines needed to be built. Its size and depth allowed more than 300 electricians, welders and engineers to operate continuously, working in shifts.  

Two state-of-the-art vessels (Pacific Orca and Sea Installer), built specifically for this type of offshore installation, were also used, which, thanks to their enormous stability, allowed the construction to be carried out despite the area’s difficult winter weather conditions. An offshore substation was also designed and built to withstand the harsh weather, raise the voltage and export the electricity generated with two submarine cables to the onshore substation at Heysham, the point of connection to the UK grid. 

Other projects in the UK  

In less than two decades, Iberdrola has managed to position itself as a leader in renewables in the UK. Through our UK subsidiary ScottishPower, the Group manages more than 3,000 MW of installed capacity, mainly from offshore and onshore wind.  

ScottishPower is the UK's first 100% renewable energy company with 39 onshore wind farms and two offshore wind farms. Special mention should be made of the East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm, located in the North Sea, which is to date the largest wind farm in Iberdrola's history and one of the largest of its kind in the world. East Anglia Three, which will be the second largest in the world with an investment of almost 4,000 million pounds, is currently under construction.  

Iberdrola, world leader in renewable energies

At Iberdrola, we dare committed to renewable energy more than two decades ago as a fundamental pillar on which to build our safe, clean and competitive business model. Thanks to this vision, we are today world leaders in renewables, reaching 44,148 MW of clean energy in operation at the end of september 2024.

This commitment is reflected in our Strategic Plan, in which we will allocate €15.5bn gross to renewables. More than half of this amount is focused on offshore wind in the US, UK, France and Germany; 28% on onshore wind and 18% on solar.

10 years of West of Duddon Sands

In 2024, ScottishPower Renewables celebrates a decade of delivery in offshore wind as West of Duddon Sands windfarm marks its tenth year of operation.

Built and operated as a 50/50 partnership, the West of Duddon Sands windfarm was brought to life in 2014 and since then it has been powering a cleaner and greener future from the Irish Sea, around 14km off the Cumbrian coastline.

Over the last ten years, it has produced enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of around 340,000 homes each year – that’s the same as the size of the city of Leeds.

The project marked investment of more than £1 billion and supported more than 1,000 jobs at peak construction, with around 40 long-term skilled jobs created at its operations and maintenance base in Barrow-in Furness.

It also supported multi-million investment, jobs and growth at Belfast Harbour – the first purpose-built offshore wind installation and pre-assembly harbour in the UK and Ireland. 

In its ten years of existence West of Duddon Sands also marks a milestone in the advancing construction technology of offshore wind. At the time of construction, the windfarm benefitted from using two of the world’s largest and most advanced vessels to install the foundations and turbine components, allowing work to continue offshore during one of the worst winters for storm force winds.

As its first-ever offshore windfarm, it has cemented its place in Iberdrola history and paved the way for ScottishPower to become one of the biggest players in the UK.