World’s largest offshore wind farm is expected to be ready by 2020

With a capacity of 1.2 GW, Hornsea Project One will be the world's first offshore wind farm to exceed the 1 GW mark!

With a capacity of 1.2 GW, Hornsea Project One will be the world's first offshore wind farm to exceed the 1 GW mark!

The wind farm will be placed 121 km (75 miles) off the coast of Yorkshire, in the North East coast of UK, in an area of 407 km². It’s the first time that a wind farm has been built so far away from shore, taking advantage of the unique wind conditions there.

Photo credits: Dong Energy

Hornsea Project One in numbers

The huge 7MW turbines will be 190 m (623 ft) tall and will be manufactured in Siemens’s facilities in the city of Hull. The power produced will be enough to cover the needs in electricity of more than 1 million homes! 2000 jobs will be created and 300 permanent employees will be required to operate the project once fully commissioned. 965 km (600 miles) of cables will be used to carry the energy back to land.

Photo Credits: qz.com

Up to now, London Array is the largest wind farm in operation, with 630 MW. Hornsea Project One will smash this record…

The UK has the biggest offshore wind farm industry in the world by far, as government is said to prefer offshore wind farms due to the difficulties in finding suitable sites on land and getting planning permission. The wind industry needs stability for developers to keep investing in it, however the government policies of the last few months are in the opposite direction.

The developer

Dong Energy (a Denmark-based wind farm developer is behind Hornsea Project One, but also has the project rights to Hornsea Project Two and Hornsea Project Three, which have the potential of 3 GW of offshore wind power capacity in total.

Dong Energy predicted that , as wind farms’ capacity will reach 30 GW!

Watch the video below for an insight into the project: