Glamox ahoy: The Oslo company launches its latest offshore wind lighting project

Glamox is loving life at sea. In the latest example of its marine expansion, a Norwegian firm has shipped a massive, Glamox-lit electrical substation some 330 miles southwest into the North Sea, where it will help connect offshore wind turbines to the U.K. electrical grid.

Stavanger-based energy engineering and construction company Aibel installed about 640 Glamox marine LED luminaires on the 131-foot high by 243-foot by 167-foot substation before sending it out from Haugesund, Norway starting last March.

The substation is now installed at the Dogger Bank A windfarm about 80 miles off the northeast coast of England, where it will convert AC power from 95 13MW GE turbines into high-voltage direct current for transmission to the the U.K. once the 1.2GW Dogger Bank A switches on, expected to be soon. 

“Glamox is providing marine-certified external and internal LED luminaires for the substations,” a Glamox spokesperson said. “These include tough, anticorrosive, waterproof linear luminaires and floodlights for lighting gantries, walkways, cranes, doors, stairwells, corridors, and machine rooms.”

The Glamox LED deployment at the substation is the first of three for Glamox at Dogger Bank, as Aibel has contracted the Oslo-based lighting company to illuminate the substations for Dogger Bank B and Dogger Bank C, each rated at the same 1.2 GW as Dogger Bank A. The two subsequent substations are expected to require around 640 luminaires, similar to Dogger Bank A.

The Dogger Bank Wind Farm is run by a consortium of Glasgow, Scotland–based SSE Renewables, Stavanger-based Equinor, and Stavanger-based Vargronn. SSE and Equinor hold 40% each and Vargronn owns 20%. The group wants it to be fully operational by 2026, when its 3.6GW capacity would supply electricity to around 6 million British homes.

The Marine, Offshore & Wind (MOW) sector is the smaller but fastest growing of Glamox’s two main divisions. In the first quarter ending March 31, it grew to 25% of the the company’s NOK 1.04 billion revenue, with the professional sector accounting for the rest.

The substation job is not the only Glamox presence at Dogger Bank. The company is also providing lighting for four ships helping to build and service the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, and to two ships building and servicing a separate wind farm in the Dogger Bank section of the North Sea, called the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm (formerly called Teeside B).

Dogger Bank is an expansive area of shallower water in the North Sea that spans U.K., Danish, Dutch, and German territory, while sitting closest to the U.K. (it takes its name from the Doggerland land bridge that once connected Britain to mainland Europe). Wind farm plans and activity date back some 15 years, during which time project ownership and management has shifted on several occasions.

Other recent MOW activity for Glamox has included wins with Swedish ferry company Stena Line and an onshore wind lighting job with ScottishPower near Glasgow.

MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).

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