World’s largest offshore wind farm

Dogger Bank wind farm, 70 nautical miles off the northwest coast of England, is being installed in three 1.2GW phases, A, B and C.

Owned by SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Vårgrønn (20%), the farm’s GE Vernova Haliade turbines are massive, each with blades more than 100m in length and with a generating power of 13MW.

The owners claim that each rotation of a single turbine’s blades can produce enough energy to power an average home for two days.

The first one was installed by Jan De Nul, using its newest and world’s largest installation vessel Voltaire, which with a lifting capacity of 3,200 tonnes will be used to install the rest of the 277 turbines, each with a height of 260 metres.

“Set against the broader energy context, Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, demonstrates the best of what the offshore wind industry can offer, with innovative technologies, long-term jobs and economic growth and security of electricity supply at a major scale,” said Equinor CEO Anders Opedal.

Dogger Bank will have HVDC transmission technology to connect the farm to the UK National Grid, potentially powering six million homes. This will see the world’s first unmanned offshore HVDC substation platform being installed.

“It is also a landmark moment for the global offshore wind industry, with Dogger Bank demonstrating just what can be achieved when policy makers, investors, industry, and communities work together to achieve something truly remarkable, said SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies.

“The innovations this pioneering project has developed will also mean future developments can be built faster and more efficiently, accelerating the clean energy transition. Now, of course, the challenge is to accelerate the next wave of these projects and we look forward to working with governments to bring these forward as soon as possible.”

“While today we celebrate Dogger Bank providing its first power, the offshore wind farm is delivering much more than renewable energy,” said Vårgrønn CEO Olav Hetland. “The project has contributed to building industry and creating local jobs and will continue to do so over several decades.”