Ørsted has revealed the “world’s largest” wind farm has entered full operation boasting 1.3GW of renewable energy generation.
Comprised of 165 wind turbines, the Hornsea 2 project situated 89km off the coast of Yorkshire will significantly contribute to the growing demand for renewable energy in light of the government’s ambition in having 50GW of offshore wind capacity in operation by 2030.
This is the second Hornsea offshore wind project to have entered operation with the first having a renewable energy generation capacity of 1.2GW. A third variant of the Hornsea offshore wind project is being developed by Ørsted and is set to be the largest having a capacity of 2.8GW.
Development of the third project is expected to accelerate having been awarded a contract of difference earlier this year.
“This project has been an amazing endeavour. To build the world’s largest offshore windfarm during a global pandemic has been a challenge that the team have overcome with flying colours,” said Patrick Harnett, vice-president UK programme at Ørsted.
“I am so proud of how our team has worked together to safely deliver this remarkable project. A huge thank you to all those involved in making it happen.”
The energy generated from the offshore wind turbines is transported via 390km of subsea export cables from the Hornsea 2 site to Horseshoe Point in Lincolnshire.
“Now Hornsea 2 is fully operational, our total capacity from Grimsby is 3.8GW, providing enough electricity to power 3.3 million homes,” Darren Ramshaw, vice-president, and head of UK East Coast Region at Ørsted said.
“It does not just stop there, by 2030, we will be on track to power over a quarter of UK households. Our teams here work tirelessly on making sure Britain is powered by clean energy.”
Last year, OVO Energy entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Ørsted to buy green power from its Barrow Offshore Wind Farm.
The agreement saw the energy supplier purchase 100% of the power from the 90MW capacity asset, with this playing into its ambitions of increasing the amount of renewable electricity backed by UK renewable generation to almost 40%.
Scotland also saw its largest offshore wind farm generate its first power last week with a capacity of just over 1GW.
Developed by SSE Renewables alongside partner TotalEnergies, the Seagreen offshore wind farm, situated 27km off the coast of Angus in Scotland, started generating its first electricity via 114 Vestas turbines that were commissioned and connected to the grid.
