World´s largest offshore wind farm starts operations

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World´s largest offshore wind farm starts operations

On June 2, Danish energy group Ørsted announced that it has officially commenced operations on 1,218 MW Hornsea One, the largest offshore wind farm in the world located around 120km from the east coast of England in the North Sea.

The project’s first operational team of 32 set sail on May 31 from Grimsby Royal Docks to the wind farm. They are part of two shift-based teams that are responsible for operating and maintaining the wind farm, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, throughout its 25-year life-span. The teams will each spend two weeks at a time offshore, staying on a state-of-the-art Service Operations Vessel (SOV).

The project involves the installation of 174 7 MW Siemens Gamesa turbines ​in a 407km2 area. To date, over 50 of the 174 Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines are operational. The huge scale of the project means that operations are beginning before construction is complete.  Remaining turbine installation is expected to continue until late summer.

The wind farm is expected to be operational in the beginning of 2020. When it will be fully operational, it will be able to power well over a million UK homes with clean electricity.

Ørsted owns the wind farm equally with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

Hornsea One is a unique project in many ways. It is:

  • First offshore wind farm in the world with a capacity of over 1GW, double the size of the current world’s largest.
  • Furthest from shore offshore wind farm has ever been built
  • First offshore reactive compensation station
  • Longest ever AC offshore wind export cable system
  • The project’s distance from land has led to various innovations to overcome issues working out at sea;
  • First UK offshore helicopter refueling for a wind farm; due to the site being so far offshore the team incorporated helicopter fuel storage in the design, to maximise helicopter use offshore
  • Service Operations Vessel (SOV) will remain at sea for 28 days stints, optimising the crew’s time spent at sea – normally two weeks at a time with helicopters used to support crew changes
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