Dogger Bank Wind Farm, located about 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire in the UK, has successfully installed its first two 13 MW turbines. These turbines, manufactured by GE Renewable Energy and known as Haliade-X, will be the largest offshore wind turbines in the world. The installation was carried out on the Voltaire, the largest marine jack-up installation vessel ever built, with a lifting capacity of 3,200 tonnes.
At an impressive 260 meters tall, the towers of these turbine structures reach the same height as the iconic Rockefeller Center in New York. With 107 meter long blades, each spin of these turbines generates enough clean energy to power the average UK home for two days.
Once completed, the Dogger Bank wind farm will occupy an area roughly the size of Greater London on a seabed that was once a land bridge between the UK and Europe. With a capacity of 3.6 GW and consisting of 277 turbines, this offshore wind farm will generate enough clean energy to power approximately 6 million homes each year. In addition, it will result in annual CO2 savings equivalent to the emissions produced by around 1.5 million average gasoline cars.
The project was developed and built by SSE Renewables in partnership with Equinor and Vårgrønn in Norway. With the installation of the first two turbines completed, the construction of the 95 monopile foundations at the Dogger Bank A site has been completed.
Equinor Executive Vice President of Renewable Energy Pål Eitrheim expressed excitement about the future operation of the wind farm. The project will be managed from a new Operation and Maintenance base at the Port of Tyne, creating 400 jobs over the 35-year life of the wind farm. Eitrheim said: “We look forward to seeing all 277 turbines safely installed over the next three years, generating green electricity on a large scale and powering millions of British homes.”
