Largest ever offshore wind farm is fully operational

4th September 2022

Largest ever offshore wind farm is totally operational

This week, the huge Hornsea Two mission grew to become totally operational off the coast of the UK.

At practically 1.4 gigawatts (GW), Hornsea Two overtakes the neighbouring Hornsea One because the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The mission contains 165 Siemens Gamesa 8MW generators, every the peak of a skyscraper, which ship 20% extra annual output than these used at Hornsea One. Situated 89 km (55 mi) off the Yorkshire Coast, they are going to energy over 1.4 million UK houses with low-cost, clear, and safe renewable power.

Every wind turbine blade is 81 metres lengthy and the blade tip reaches greater than 200 metres above sea degree. One revolution of a wind turbine blade can energy a median UK residence for twenty-four hours. Subsea export cables take the facility generated from Hornsea 2 to the shore at Horseshoe Level in Lincolnshire.

Hornsea One and Two mixed will energy 2.5 million houses. They’re a part of the Hornsea zone, an space of the North Sea protecting greater than 2,000 km2 and set to additionally embody the two.8 GW Hornsea Three and doubtlessly even a Hornsea 4 by 2027. Whereas the capability of Hornsea 4 is at present unknown (because of the ever-increasing measurement of accessible wind generators), all 4 tasks will make a big contribution to the UK Authorities’s ambition of getting 50 GW offshore wind in operation by 2030.

Ørsted, the Danish multinational that’s constructing every mission, now has 13 offshore wind farms operational within the UK, offering 6.2 GW of renewable electrical energy for the nation – sufficient to energy greater than 7 million houses. An additional 2.2 GW is underneath development and the corporate has one other 11 GW of awarded capability underneath improvement, together with Hornsea Three. Simply over a 12 months in the past, Ørsted introduced its 1,000th turbine set up in UK waters and likewise welcomed a brand new state-of-the-art service operations vessel to its fleet, the Wind of Hope.

“The UK is really a world chief in offshore wind and the completion of Hornsea Two is an incredible milestone for the offshore wind business – not simply within the UK however globally,” stated Duncan Clark, Head of Area UK at Ørsted.

“Present international occasions spotlight greater than ever the significance of landmark renewable power tasks like Hornsea Two, serving to the UK improve the safety and resilience of its power provide and drive down prices for shoppers by lowering dependence on costly fossil fuels.

“Not solely will Hornsea Two present low price, clear power for hundreds of thousands of houses within the UK, it has additionally delivered hundreds of high-quality jobs and billions of kilos of funding within the UK’s offshore wind provide chain. We look ahead to working with authorities and business colleagues to proceed to speed up the deployment of offshore wind for the good thing about houses and companies throughout the nation.”