The largest offshore wind farm in the world generates its first energy

By

Marex

2019-02-18 21:28:54

The first turbine of the world's largest offshore wind farm has been installed and now produces electricity. When fully operational, the Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm will have almost double the world's largest offshore wind farm, Walney Extension, and will power more than one million UK homes. Renewable electricity, generated by the wind.

The project is located 120 kilometers from the Yorkshire coast and will include 174 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW turbines.

The wind farm is a joint venture between Ørsted and Global Infrastructure Partners. Ørsted, recently voted the world's most sustainable energy company, began offshore construction a little over a year ago and expects the project to be completed by the first quarter 2020.

Matthew Wright, CEO of Ørsted in the UK, said: "Hornsea 1 is the first of a new generation of offshore power plants that are now competing with the capacity of traditional fossil fuel power plants. The ability to produce clean electricity abroad at this scale is an important step globally, at a time when urgent action must be taken to combat climate change.

To date, 172 out of 174 monopile foundations have been installed at the site and turbine installation is expected to continue until the end of the summer of 2019. The electricity generated by the turbines will go through submarine cables through one of the three huge substations at sea, and first fully offshore reactive compensation station, before reaching the coast at Horseshoe Point, in Lincolnshire. The electricity is then routed via underground cables to the North Killingholme substation, where it is connected to the UK national grid.

Ørsted will produce almost exclusively green energy by 2025 and provide clean energy to more than 50 million people by 2030. Ørsted operates more than 1,100 offshore wind turbines. The company has installed an offshore wind capacity of approximately 5.6 GW and an additional 3.4 GW under construction. In addition, Ørsted was awarded the right to construct approximately 1 GW of offshore wind power in the United States by 2023, approximately 1.1 GW in Germany by 2025 and approximately 1.8 GW in Taiwan. Ørsted's ambition is to have installed an offshore wind capacity of 15 GW worldwide by 2025.