Installation Of Turbine Twice The Height Of London Eye Begins At World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

A One-of-its Kind campaign to install the first of the 277 turbines at the world’s largest offshore wind farm has begun.

It is a significant advancement in the offshore wind industry and is a considerable step in speeding up the transition to a cleaner and greener energy system.

The installation of the first 260 m tall gigantic turbine will begin this weekend.

The turbines, which are about twice the height of the London Eye, will be installed 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm using a specialist vessel, Jan de Nul’s ‘Voltaire’, having a lifting capacity of 3200 tonnes, making it the largest offshore jack-up installation vessel built to date.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm is the largest offshore wind farm in the world. It covers an area as large as Greater London, which once formed a land bridge between the UK and Europe.

When the project is completed, it will have a capacity of 3.6 GW of renewable electricity, over 2 and a half times the size of the next largest offshore wind farm. It will also produce enough green energy to power around 6 million homes every year.

Each turn of the turbines’ 107 m long blades will generate enough energy to power a UK home for 48 hours.

When the wind farm is fully operational, it will generate CO2 savings equal to emissions of 1.5 million average internal combustion engine petrol cars.

The campaign for installing GE Renewable Energy’s 13MW Haliade-X turbines is one of the largest in the world at this point.

It is a crucial moment for the historic project being developed by the UK’s SSE Renewables in collaboration with Norway’s Equinor and Vårgrønn.

“Dogger Bank is one of the biggest and most complex engineering and infrastructure projects anywhere in the world,” SSE CEO Alistair Phillips-Davies said.

“Our progress here with our joint venture partners Equinor and Vårgrønn proves that offshore wind projects of this size are now mainstream and will help turbocharge the transition to the cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy system we all want to see,” he added.

Phillips-Davies stated that many more Dogger Banks are required to meet future energy goals.

Deputy PM Oliver Dowden visited Able Seaton Port in northeast England for the special occasion and said-

“I am pleased to be here in Hartlepool today as we install the first wind turbine at the new Dogger Bank offshore wind farm.

This project will generate cheap, clean energy to power millions of homes and provide the UK with greater energy independence in the face of Putin’s energy ransom. Disruption to global energy supplies is one of the key risks we’ve highlighted in our new National Risk Register, and working with the Dogger Bank partners, we are making Britain more secure.”

While SSE Renewables is the leading operator for developing and constructing Dogger Bank Wind Farm, Equinor will be the lead operator once the project is completed. It is expected to operate for 35 years.

References: projectcargojournal, equinor, scientificamerican