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
Country news
-
-
May 23, 2019
Innogy’s offshore wind farm´s capacity increases to 1.4 GW
Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, the largest project in innogy’s development portfolio, has been granted approval to increase its maximum installed capacity by 200 megawatts from 1200 MW to 1400 MW.
Read more -
May 16, 2019
Construction of Scotland´s largest offshore wind farm completed
The last of 84 offshore wind turbines was commissioned on May 15 at Beatrice, Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, which has been completed on time and under budget after three years of construction.
Read more -
May 06, 2019
Five bidders shortlisted for the 2.5 GW offshore wind links in the UK
Five bidders have been shortlisted by the UK's Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) to own and operate the transmission links for three offshore wind farms, with 2.5 GW of capacity, worth GBP2.7 billion (US$3.5 billion) in the biggest tender round to date.
The three links being tendered are to connect the Beatrice (588 MW), Hornsea One (1.2 GW) and East Anglia One (714 MW) wind farms.
Read more -
April 29, 2019
Triton Knoll signs a new port lease for 857 MW offshore wind project
Grimsby’s Royal Dock has been confirmed as the home for Triton Knoll’s offshore construction and operations and maintenance facility after the project signed an eagerly awaited port lease with ABP in Grimsby.
Read more -
March 04, 2019
Cubico Sustainable Investments achieves US$340 million refinancing of UK solar and wind assets
Cubico Sustainable Investments has announced that it has completed the refinancing of 17 onshore wind and solar PV projects in the UK.
Read more
