The new holder of the world’s largest offshore wind farm title - Orsted’s Hornsea Two - has been declared fully operational.
The 1.3GW project, featuring 165 wind turbines, is run from Grimsby, where 400 direct jobs have been created across the farms. Valued at £6 billion and located almost 90km off the East Yorkshire coast, it has the capacity to power more than 1.4 million homes.
It takes the record from ‘little’ sister Hornsea One, the 1.2GW farm that sits alongside it, within a 2,000 sq km area of North Sea set to welcome two more projects in the coming years, bringing further jobs.
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First power was generated in December as the installation continued from Green Port Hull, where towers, blades and nacelles - the engine room atop the turbine - were brought together on the quayside. Construction had begun in October 2020, with the bright yellow transition pieces emerging, with the Siemens Gamesa turbines, and the Hull-built blades following in the spring.
Patrick Harnett, vice president for UK programme, said: “This project has been an amazing endeavour. To build the world’s largest offshore wind farm during a global pandemic has been a challenge that the team have overcome with flying colours. 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.”
More than 8,000 people have been involved in the incredible feat of engineering at sea. Hornsea Two has also played a key role in the ongoing development of a larger and sustainably competitive UK supply chain to support the next phase of the UK’s offshore wind success story. In the past five years alone, Orsted has placed major contracts with nearly 200 UK suppliers with £4.5 billion invested to date and a further £8.6 billion expected to be invested over the next decade.
Hornsea Three, at 2.8GW, is set to follow having been fully consented, with Hornsea Four going through the process. A £3 billion deal for a 50 per cent stake in Hornsea Two was agreed with French financial giants AXA IM Alts and Crédit Agricole Assurances in March, and is anticipated to close later this year.
It has now been handed over to the team led by Darren Ramshaw, Orsted vice president, and head of UK East Coast region. He said: “Thanks to all those who have built the wind farm, our operations and maintenance teams are already at work. Hornsea Two is another brilliant addition to our East Coast portfolio. Now Hornsea Two is fully operational, our total capacity from Grimsby is 3.8GW, providing enough electricity to power 3.3 million homes. And 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.”
Power connects to the grid at North Killingholme, with cables hitting landfall at Horseshoe Point and snaking round North East Lincolnshire. Orsted now has 13 operational offshore wind farms in the UK, providing 6.2GW of renewable electricity for the UK – enough to power more than seven million homes.
Head of UK for Orsted, Duncan Clark, said: “The UK is truly a world leader in offshore wind and the completion of Hornsea Two is a tremendous milestone for the offshore wind industry, not just in the UK but globally. Current global events highlight more than ever the importance of landmark renewable energy projects like Hornsea Two, helping the UK increase the security and resilience of our energy supply and drive down costs for consumers by reducing our dependence on expensive fossil fuels.
“Not only will Hornsea Two provide low cost, clean energy for millions of homes in the UK, it has also delivered thousands of high-quality jobs and billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s offshore wind supply chain. We look forward to working with government and industry colleagues to continue to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind for the benefit of homes and businesses across the country.”
As well as ensuring the Humber region retains the top title, Hornsea Two has also left the legacy of the award-winning Thrive safety programme, an immersive facility in Immingham. Innovation has been supported through the development of the ‘Get Up Safe’ motion-compensated lifting system for technicians.
A £1 million donation has been made to Grimsby’s emerging Horizon Youth Zone, while Orsted has also committed a further £140,000 to RNLI crew training at seven stations in the vicinity of operations.
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