One of the turbines of the Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm. According to the Danish energy company Orsted, the plant has a capacity of more than 1.3 gigawatts.
Orst
A facility described by Danish energy company Orsted as the “world’s largest offshore wind farm” is now fully operational, with its 165 turbines expected to help power more than 1.4 million UK homes.
Hornsea 2 is approximately 89 kilometers (approximately 55 miles) off the coast of Yorkshire, England and is of considerable size.
According to Orsted, it has a capacity of more than 1.3 gigawatts and covers an area of 462 square kilometers. Hornsea 2, he added, uses Siemens Gamesa turbines with blades measuring 81 meters or more than 265 feet.
“One rotation of wind turbine blades can power an average UK home for 24 hours,” says the company.
It is the latest step forward for the Hornsea 2 project, which generated its first power in December 2021.
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The development comes as European countries seek to wean off Russian fossil fuels, including gas, following February’s invasion of the Kremlin in Ukraine.
“Current global events underscore more than ever the importance of pioneering renewable energy projects like Hornsea 2, which are helping Britain increase the security and resilience of its energy supply and lower costs for consumers by reducing dependence on expensive fossil fuels” , said Duncan Clark, Head of UK Region at Orsted.
The UK is home to a mature offshore wind sector which is expected to expand in the coming years, with authorities targeting up to 50GW of capacity by 2030. The European Union, which left the UK in January 2020, previously had a 300GW target for offshore wind by mid-century.
Across the Atlantic, the US has a long way to go to catch up with Europe. America’s first offshore wind farm, the 30-megawatt Block Island wind farm, only started commercial operation in late 2016.
But change is upon us, and in November 2021 ground was broken for a project billed as the United States’ first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.
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