Orsted has completed installation of all 165 foundations and the project’s offshore substation at its 1.4GW Hornsea 2 wind farm, 89km off the UK North Sea coast.
The installation of the monopile foundations means that the project is ready for the final third of wind turbines to be installed, ahead of the wind farm coming online in 2022.
Hornsea 2’s offshore substation is the world’s largest alternating current version, weighing around 8000 tonnes. It was safely lifted into position by the vessel Sleipnir.
Also onsite is the reactive compensation station which will be lifted into place in the coming days.
Finally, the project has also recently laid all 390 km of export cable needed to take the electricity generated from the wind farm to the onshore substation and ultimately the National Grid.
Spanning an offshore area of 462 sq km, Hornsea 2 will be the world’s largest wind farm when it goes into operation.
Hornsea 2 programme director Patrick Harnett, at Orsted, said: “These twin milestones, together with the completion of our export cable circuits, mark the culmination of a truly monumental scope of work involving multiple teams from numerous companies working together in the face of some significant challenges over the last 18 months.
“These are very complex operations and major engineering achievements, delivered thanks to the dedication, professionalism and positivity of the whole project team and we are all delighted that we have completed these significant milestones along the road to having the wind farm fully up and running in 2022.”
When Hornsea 2 is operational Orsted will be supplying over 7% of Britain’s electricity.