As the world leader in offshore wind, the UK is home to some of the largest and most exciting developments in the field. Here you can find Hornsea, the world’s largest wind farm which powers a million homes and accounts for around 11 percent of the country’s total capacity for offshore wind. The sector employs over 11,000 professionals in the UK and will play a key role in the nation’s plans for a net-zero carbon future.
Coupled with falling prices for equipment and production, the field is seeing a slew of promising developments on the rise, despite the current pandemic and the subsequent recession. Below are some of the most notable projects in the pipeline for the UK’s offshore wind sector.
Dolphyn Floating Offshore Wind-to-Hydrogen Project
The Dolphyn development by Environmental Resource Management (ERM) is not only a large project, but also a notable one for the country. It will be the UK’s first plant that will use offshore turbines to produce hydrogen. Dubbed a “super fuel”, hydrogen can generate three times as much energy per kilogram compared to fossil fuels.
The impact will be as explosive as it sounds, both for the UK’s decarbonisation efforts and the local job market. “Basically the number of jobs would be sufficient to totally replace all of the oil and gas jobs in Aberdeen and surroundings as they are at present,” says Dolphyn project manager Kevin Kinsella.
Should ERM’s projects go as planned, the site will be the first of many hydrogen wind farms. The firm’s ambition for the chain of turbines will be to cut the UK’s reliance on natural gas by up to 50 percent by 2065. The first leg of the project, a prototype that will generate 2MW, is expected to go live by 2024.
Dogger Bank Creyke Beck and Teesside
Dogger Bank is set to be the location of the world’s biggest wind farm, which is expected to be able to power around 4.5 million homes. The project, which encompasses the construction of four farms, is divided into three phases: Creyke Beck A, Creyke Beck B, and Teesside A and Sofia Offshore Wind Farm.
The two Creyke Beck sites are expected to give rise to around 400 turbines, creating a capacity of 2.4GW in total. The venture will also be the debut of GE’s Haliade-X 13MW turbine, which can power a home for more than two days with a single spin. Around 320 jobs both short and long-term for construction and operations of the farms will be generated by the projects, with 120 of these being based off of the Port of Tyne. Recruitment is expected to start next year.
The third and final phase involves the construction of two wind farms: Teesside A and Sofia Offshore Wind Farm. Both will add some 300 turbines to Dogger Bank, plus a combined capacity of 2.6GW. Onshore development and surveys for final designs are set to start next year.
Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4
Hornsea 3 is Ørsted’s proposed extension of Hornsea 1 and 2. These are wind farms situated off the Yorkshire coast. The 174-turbine strong Hornsea 1 became operational just early this year and currently stands as the world’s largest wind farm with a capacity of 1.2GW. The construction of Hornsea 2 is expected to go into operation in 2022.
The development of Hornsea 3 will further add 2.4GW of capacity to the project. That’s enough to power around 2 million homes and to offset 128 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of its lifetime. It is currently awaiting consent for development by December 31 2020.
Pre-application for the development of Hornsea 4, which will cover an area that can fit up to 180 turbines, was formally started last year.
Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas
The Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas are two sister projects from Swedish power supplier, Vattenfall. Vanguard was given development consent in July, which means it’s well underway to providing power to over 1.9 million UK homes. The project is expected to offset 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, Vattenfall expects a consent decision for Boreas by the first half of 2021.
The wind farms are expected to each have a capacity of 1.8 GW. Combined, Vattenfall predicts the projects will generate 150 jobs once operational, while onshore construction will create an additional 400.
Kincardine Wind Farm
Compared to the gigawatt capacities of the other farms on the list, Kincardine’s 50MW capacity may seem unimpressive. However, this farm in Aberdeen Bay is as important to the UK’s green future as the other developments in the list because of one thing: it floats.
Traditional offshore farms are erected on limited real estate–seabeds in relatively shallow depths. Currently, turbines can only be installed in depths as deep as 40 metres. Floating wind farms, which can be buoyed in depths of up to a kilometre, will expand the nation’s space for offshore wind.
Upon completion, Kincardine will be the biggest floating offshore wind farm in the world and will provide clean energy to 55,000 homes. Farms like Kincardine will not only unlock locations previously unfeasible for wind farms, but also create more employment opportunities in offshore wind. Floating farms will create 17,000 jobs by 2050, according to a report by RenewablesUK and Scottish Renewables.
The next decade will be an exciting time to be in offshore wind. Construction and operation of new projects are expected to create thousands of jobs in surrounding communities. And with the government’s eager ambitions to power every UK home with offshore wind power by 2030, we can only expect larger and more innovative developments afield.
