With the official signing of the wind-turbine order with Siemens Gamesa, the developer and operator Ørsted has now kicked off the largest offshore wind project to date. Once commissioned in early 2022, Hornsea Two will provide clean energy for approximately 1.3 million British households. The installation of the 165 large direct drive wind turbines at the project site 89 kilometers off the British east coast is expected to start in 2021.
The record-breaking project with a combined rating of 1,386 MW is not only the largest wind project in Siemens Gamesa’s history but also the largest single order in the history of offshore wind energy. So far, this leading position has been defended by Hornsea One with a capacity of 1,218 MW and which similarly was developed by Ørsted and is currently under construction.
“Ørsted is one of Siemens Gamesa’s key partners to transform offshore wind from wind farm level to a clean energy source in real power plant scale,” said Andreas Nauen, Offshore CEO at SGRE. “We are proud and pleased to meet this challenge within the framework of a strong and long-term collaboration with an experienced player like Ørsted.”
“We are delighted to continue our partnership with Siemens Gamesa,” said Duncan Clark, Ørsted’s program director for Hornsea Projects One and Two. “We’ve worked with them on many other U.K. projects, including Race Bank, … and was the first project to use blades manufactured at the facility in Hull.”
The nacelles for Hornsea Two will be produced at SGRE’s factory in Cuxhaven, Germany, while the majority of the blades will be made at the factory in Hull, U.K., where the pre-assembly work will also be carried out. Towers are expected to be partly sourced from U.K. suppliers. A single 8-MW turbine is capable of generating enough electricity for more than 8,000 average European households. Originally planned for up to 300 turbines, Hornsea Two has been adapted to the progress of the significantly more powerful hardware. With only 165 units at the same total output, the project benefits from significantly improved economic efficiency and simultaneously reduced LCoE.
The new SG 8.0-167 DD is equipped with a rotor 167 meters in diameter. The blades, 81.5 meters long, deliver an 18 percent wider swept area and 20 percent more annual output than its predecessor, the SWT-7.0-154. It features the technology proven in the direct drive platform combined with a larger-scale rotor in order to offer customers higher returns while minimizing the associated costs and risks.
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