Orsted has reached full commercial operations at the 1300MW Hornsea 2, which is now the world’s largest offshore wind farm in service.
The 1.3GW project comprises 165 wind turbines, located 89km off the Yorkshire Coast, which will help power over 1.4 million UK homes with low-cost, clean and secure renewable energy.
It is situated alongside its sister project Hornsea 1, which together can power 2.5 million homes and make a significant contribution to the UK Government’s ambition of having 50GW offshore wind in operation by 2030.
The Hornsea Zone, an area of the North Sea covering more than 2,000 sq km, is also set to include Hornsea 3.
The 2.8GW project is planned to follow Hornsea 2 having been awarded a contract for difference from the UK government earlier this year.
Hornsea 2 has 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, Orsted said.
In the past five years alone, Orsted has placed major contracts with nearly 200 UK suppliers with £4.5bn invested to date and a further £8.6bn expected to be invested over the next decade.
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 7 million homes.
Hornsea 2 makes a significant contribution to Orsted’s global ambition of installing 30GW offshore wind by 2030.
Orsted vice president of its UK programme Patrick Harnett said: “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.
“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.”