5th September 2022|Company Updates
Hornsea 2 – offshore wind farm
Hornsea 2, the largest offshore wind farm, is now fully functioning
The largest offshore wind farm in the world, which generated its first power in December 2021, is now up and running – it includes 165 turbines which are set to help power well over 1.4 million U.K. homes.
Hornsea 2 is located approximately 89 kilometres (55 miles) off the coast of Yorkshire, England. It has a capacity of more than 1.3 gigawatts and covers an area of 462 square kilometres, which is nearly 1/3 the size of London, or more than 64,000 football fields. Hornsea 2 also employs Siemens Gamesa turbines with blade length of 81 metres.
According to the company, “one cycle of the wind turbine blades can power an average UK home for 24 hours.”
It is the most recent development for the Hornsea 2 project, which comes at around the same time as European countries are clearly trying to wean themselves off Russian fossil fuels, including gas, following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to Duncan Clark, Head of Region UK at Ørsted, “Current global events highlight more than ever the importance of landmark renewable energy projects like Hornsea 2 helping the UK increase the security and resilience of its energy supply and drive down costs for consumers by reducing dependence on expensive fossil fuels.”
The U.K. is home to a developed offshore wind industry that is expected to grow in the upcoming years. By 2030, authorities hope to reach a 50 GW capacity.
Also, a 300 GW goal for offshore wind by 2050 had previously been set by the EU, which the U.K. officially exited in January 2020.
To catch up with Europe, the U.S. must go to great lengths. The 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, America’s very first offshore wind farm, didn’t begin operating commercially until late 2016. However, change is on the way, and in November 2021, construction on what has been named the United States’ “first commercial scale offshore wind farm” officially began.
References
Frangoul, A. (2022). CNBC. The world’s biggest offshore wind farm is now fully operational. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/huge-offshore-wind-farm-hornsea-2-is-fully-operational-orsted-says.html
Orsted. (2022). Hornsea 2, the world’s largest windfarm, enters full operation. Retrieved from: https://orsted.com/en/media/newsroom/news/2022/08/20220831559011
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