September 2, 2022: -A facility defined by Danish energy firm Orsted as the “world’s biggest offshore wind farm” is completely operational, with its 165 turbines set to help control over 1.4 million U.K. homes.
Situated about 89 kilometers off the coast of Yorkshire, England, the scale of Hornsea 2 is significant.
According to Orsted, it has over 1.3 gigawatts and stretches across 462 square kilometers, over half the size of New York City. Hornsea 2, it further said, uses Siemens Gamesa turbines with blades measuring 81 meters, or over 265 feet.
“One revolution of the wind turbine cutters can power an average U.K. home for 24 hours,” the company says.
The recent step forward for the Hornsea 2 project, generating its first power in Dec. 2021.
The development comes as European governments attempted to wean themselves off Russian fossil fuels, which include gas, following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
“Current global events highlight over ever the importance of landmark renewable energy projects like Hornsea 2, allowing the U.K. to increase the security and stability of its energy supply and drive down costs for consumers by decreasing reliance on expensive fossil fuels,” said Duncan Clark, head of the U.K. region at Orsted.
The U.K. is a house to a mature offshore wind sector that looks set to expand in the coming years, with surveillance aiming for up to 50 G.W. of capacity by 2030.
The European Union, which the U.K. went in January 2020, has laid out a 300 GW target for offshore wind by the middle of this century.
The U.S. has to leave to catch up with Europe in the Atlantic. America’s initial offshore wind facility, the 30 megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, only started commercial operations in late 2016.
Change is coming, however, and in Nov. 2021, the ground was broken on a project dubbed the United States’ “first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.”
