Offshore Wind Farms
Wind energy generation is a technology in the frontier of our efforts to flatten the carbon curve. In order for us to stop climate change, we have to reconsider some aspects of the way we live.
One of those aspects is how we supply our energetic demand. By now it’s a worldwide convention that the use of fossil fuels has a negative impact on the environment. Today we will discuss the concept of the offshore windfarm and what they have to offer to the carbon-free energy sector.
In the search for appropriate sustainable alternatives, we make an endless number of ambitious and inspiring engineering projects. All with the intent to improve our ability to sustain the modern culture we established. Offshore wind farms are a great example of that. What we use to consider science fiction technology, is already here in our grasp. Moreover, we didn’t only prove the concept, our ambition is only becoming greater with the years which leads to a significant increase in new projects year after year.
We have been using the wind to power our culture for a long time now. Yet the scale of those projects is revolutionary at the very least. Currently, with a peak number of almost seven hundred offshore power generation projects, it’s time to take a look at the biggest offshore wind projects and what we can learn from them.
Largest operating wind farm in the world – the Hornsea 2
The largest operating offshore wind farm in the world is the Hornsea 2.
They recently completed it in August 2022. Once in full-scale operation, it will power over 1.4 million UK homes will with affordable, clean, and secure renewable energy. Thanks to the 1.3GW capacity of this offshore wind farm.
It comprises 165 wind turbines and is located 89 km off the coast of Yorkshire.
They positioned the wind farm next to its “brother” Hornsea 1, and the two combined can power 2.5 million homes. Thus, significantly advancing the UK government’s goal of having 50 GW of offshore wind in operation by 2030.
To further expand the capacity of the system, they will also include Hornsea 3 in the Hornsea zone. This is a region of the North Sea that spans over 2,000 km2.
In order to support the next chapter of the UK’s offshore wind success story, Hornsea 2 has helped. It created a larger and more sustainably competitive UK supply chain.
The completion of Hornsea 2 is a huge milestone in the offshore wind industry. This is not only in the UK but worldwide. The UK is unquestionably a global leader in offshore wind.
With less reliance on pricey fossil fuels, landmark renewable energy projects like Hornsea 2 will help the UK boost the reliability and security of its energy supply and lower consumer costs.
Also, besides providing low-cost, clean energy for millions of homes in the UK, Hornsea 2 has also created thousands of high-quality jobs and invested billions of pounds in the UK’s offshore wind industry.
Largest Dutch offshore project – Borssele 1 & 2
After the constructors completed it, Borssele I & 2 was the second-largest offshore wind farm in the world and the biggest offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.
The project’s eight 8 MW turbines are at a 122 km2 site with water depths ranging from 14 to 36 m. Monopole foundations support them. Also, each wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 167 m and a tip height of 200 m.
The main frame of each turbine is 21,900 m2, and the turbine blade length is 81.4 m. 190 km of 66 kV inter-array cables carry the generated electricity to Tennet’s Borssele Alpha offshore substation.
Construction company Siemens Gamesa will provide the 94 turbines and, as part of a long-term arrangement, maintain them as well.
Construction on the project, which comprises 94 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines, started in January 2020 and they finished it in November 2020. In April 2021, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) acquired a 50% stake in the project.
It only took the project nine months from the start of construction to reach full operational capacity.
Significantly, extra health and safety precautions made sure that the task got done effectively even amid a pandemic around the world.
‘The Hohe See’ offshore wind is the largest german project
In the German North Sea, there is a 497 MW offshore wind farm called Hohe See which stands as the biggest offshore wind farm in Germany.
Hohe See is about 98 kilometers off the German coast and 90 kilometers north of Borkum island. The project site spans around 42 km2 of land.
The area’s water depth can reach 40 meters.
71 Siemens SWT-7.0-154 turbines, each rated at 7MW, make up the wind farm. The SWT-7.0-154 turbine has a 154-meter-diameter rotor, a 105-meter-high hub, and a 182-meter-high blade tip.
Each turbine tower weighs 755t after they included the nacelle and rotor blades. The rotors have a surface area of 18,630m2 (200,531ft2) or 2.6 football fields.
The project was jointly funded and carried out by two parties—Energie Baden-Wurttemberg (EnBW) and Enbridge, with EnBW in charge of the operation and upkeep of the wind farm.
The German utility company, Energie Baden-Wurttemberg (EnBW), which made the project’s initial proposal, invested in it in full by the end of 2016. EnBW kept the majority 50.1% holding after the Canadian energy infrastructure giant Enbridge purchased a 49.9% investment in the project in February 2017.
2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable electricity are produced by the wind farm annually, enough to power 560,000 homes and offset 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The largest wind farm operating in china – Jiangsu Qidong
The next mega wind farm boasting 300 MW offshore wind energy is the Qidong H3 Offshore Wind Farm. The project is in Jiangsu, Yellow Sea, China.
The project is still in progress and has only undergone one phase of development. It was started by Qidong Huaerrui Wind Power Technology, and construction started in 2020.
It began operating for commercial purposes in December 2021. The project is now owned by Jiangsu Huawei Wind Power and Qidong Huaerrui Wind Power Technology.
The Qidong H3 Offshore Wind Farm produces 81,747MWh of power, which equals 663,100t of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. And just like its enormity, the cost of the project is $820.06m.
The Largest announced offshore wind facilities
The biggest ever announced – The city of Chaozhou- china
An offshore wind farm is being constructed in the Chinese city of Chaozhou. It will be so enormous that it will probably provide more energy than all of Norway’s power plants put together.
According to Chaozhua’s five-year plan which they made available online, we expect construction on the 43.3 gigawatts (GW) offshore wind farm to begin before 2025. It does not specify the cost of the offshore windfarm in the plan.
As stated, the city of Chaozhou will construct a wind farm between 75 and 185 kilometers (47 to 115 miles) off the coast of the city in the Taiwan Strait.
Because of the region’s distinctive topographical characteristics, the wind will be strong enough to operate the turbines for 3,800–4,300 hours per year, or 43%–49% of the time, with an extraordinarily high utilization rate.
Before China’s 20th Party Congress in Beijing, Electrek, the company in charge, announced on 17th October 2021 that a 13.6-megawatt offshore wind turbine with a record-breaking rotor diameter of 252 meters (827 feet) had made its debut in China.
Because of this, China has connected 17 GW more offshore wind production capacity in 2021 than any other nation did in the previous five years.
The Danish Aurora offshore wind farm
Next in the largest announced windfarm facilities is a 5,500MW offshore wind energy project, the Aurora Offshore Wind Farm. It is to be planted in Sweden’s Baltic Sea.
Currently, the project still hasn’t begun but will go through one step of development. We expect full construction on the project to begin in 2028, with commercial operations beginning in 2030.
OX2, the company developing the project, said it expects the project to provide 24,000 GWh of electricity and provide 5 million households with clean energy.
We expect the Aurora Offshore Wind Farm to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) by 14,000,000t. The estimated cost is $17,891.5 million.
There will be 220 wind turbines in the wind power project, each with a 25 MW nameplate capacity.
Engie’s 846MW Serra de Assuruá project in Brazil
Brasil Energia agreed with the Danish company Vestas to construct the Serra de Assuruá offshore windfarm in the Brazilian state of Bahia. We expect this project to be completed in 2 phases.
Vestas will initially provide 120 of its V150-4.5MW turbines for the 540MW Phase 1 project. This will also include installation, operation, and maintenance.
For Phase 2 of the project, ENGIE has the option to purchase an additional 68 units besides the outcome of Phase 1.
We expect the Serra do Assuruá project, which is in Genito do Ouro, to be finished and start operating for commercial purposes progressively in the second half of 2024.
The Assuruá windfarm will have a total installed capacity of 846 MW. Once the project will be done it is expected to be the biggest wind project in Latin America.
To conclude
The wind has the potential to fulfill our energetic needs 35 times. There are many ways to utilize this energy in our favor and offshore windfarms are one great example. Adding this type of installation to our possibilities increases the scale of new installs which is very inspiring to us. We will keep on covering this topic and update you on the record for the biggest facility will keep on rising. In the meanwhile let us know in the comments what you think about it.
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