An energy firm has hired Europe’s largest private weather company to provide forecasts while it is building the Ormonde wind farm off the UK coast.

Ormonde Energy, a subsidiary of Vattenfall Wind Power, is building the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm in the Irish Sea, 10km off Barrow-in-Furness.

It has signed a deal with MeteoGroup for a combination of synoptic, spectral (swell) and long term forecasts while construction is carried out.

MeteoGroup UK’s managing director Andy Giles said: “We are delighted to have won this prestigious contract with Vattenfall. It signals our further expansion into the renewables sector. We look forward to further demonstrating the benefits our accurate and reliable weather forecasting information has for the renewables industry.”

Vattenfall is a Swedish company and is Europe’s fifth largest generator of electricity and the largest generator of heat.

Its consolidated sales last year were in 2009 amounted to £17.9m.