Building the world's largest offshore wind farm
Dogger Bank Wind Farm: from conception to construction
On a small patch of the North Sea about 130 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast, ambitious wind power plans are taking shape. This is where Dogger Bank Wind Farm, the world's largest offshore wind farm, will soon stand. Here, 277 gigantic wind turbines will together produce a record 3.6 gigawatts of green energy capacity - enough to power six million British households a year.
In the North Sea lies a sandbank called the Dogger Bank, formerly the 'Doggerland', that once connected the UK to mainland Europe. Rising sea levels after the last Ice Age, between 8,000 to 5,500 years ago, flooded this stretch of land. Now, it will become home to the world’s largest offshore wind power project. We are developing the 3.6GW Dogger Bank wind farm in a joint venture with international energy company Equinor and Norwegian offshore wind farm developer Vårgrønn.
In 2015, the Dogger Bank project received approval from the UK government to begin the planning phase of the 8,660km2 wind farm, which sits on a relatively shallow seabed, measuring from 18 to 63 metres. Construction will require meticulous preparation, whether for the installation of the wind turbines or the laying of the cables that will bring energy ashore.
We recently reached an important milestone in generating power on Dogger Bank for the first time! Dogger Bank A is now connected to the UK national grid via an HVDC connection. This type of connection is normally used at interconnection points to transport power between countries, but here it ensures that the power passing over the long distance from Dogger Bank to the UK is transported efficiently and with minimal losses.
Giant wind turbines
We will also install Haliade-X 13 MW wind turbines at the wind farm. These are among the largest and strongest in the world, and as a result, require much larger machinery to handle, such as the ships that transport them. For Dogger Bank, we’re using the Voltaire, the world's largest specialised jack-up vessel. It will transport various components of the wind turbines to the Dogger Bank area. The components have to be shipped separately because they’re so big – almost twice the size of the London Eye and as tall as the Rockefeller Centre. It was the first time a Haliade-X 13 MW was built and functional at sea.
A single rotation of the 107-metre rotor blade of the GE Haliade-X turbine is enough to power an average UK household for two days. That means each turbine can provide enough clean energy to power 16,000 households for an entire year. A total of 227 of these wind turbines will be installed at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm. When completed in 2026, this will make Dogger Bank the largest wind farm at sea. It will be about two and a half times the size of the current largest offshore wind farm.
Special cable-laying vessels are used to install and bury the submarine cables on site and along the route to shore.