E.ON has completed the first phase foundations at the £700m Humber Gateway offshore wind farm, located 8km off the Holderness coast, East Riding of Yorkshire, the UK.

The first phase included the creation of 24 foundations, consisting of a tubular steel monopile, for the turbines, while the second phase for the remaining 49 turbines is set to begin in April 2014.

To accomplish the upcoming work, the company will hire 13 more people for its operations team at the 219MW wind farm.

Equipped with a solar array, roof top wind turbines and charging points for electric vehicles, the recently completed £3m onshore facility in Grimsby Fish Dock will accommodate the operations and maintenance team with offices, stores, a workshop and wind farm control room.

Alicat Workboats-built vessels Spirit of Hoton and Spirit of Sunthorp, which are being deployed, will be used for transporting personnel and goods to the wind farm during construction and into operations. Alicat will deliver the third vessel ‘Spirit of Turmarr’ in March 2014.

E.ON project manager Matt Swanwick said the company has reached significant milestones in the successful development of the Humber Gateway wind farm and hope to continue this trend until its proposed completion in 2015.

“So far, this has proved to be an important project for the area, creating a number of job opportunities and business for locally based companies during the construction process,” said Swanwick.

Spanning across approximately 24.8km², the 73-turbine wind farm will generate enough electricity to power up to 170,000 UK homes when complete.

The project also includes the connection of the project to the national grid onshore wherein the onshore cables will come ashore near Easington, with the cables then running underground for around 30km from Easington to Salt End, E.ON said.