The world’s largest offshore wind farm just produced its first power

Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, is sending power to the UK’s grid for the very first time.

The 3.6 gigawatt (GW) Dogger Bank Wind Farm is being built in UK waters 81 miles (130 km) off the Yorkshire coast and in three 1.2 GW phases – Dogger Bank A, B, and C.

The first offshore wind turbine at Dogger Bank A is generating the power, and a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system built by Hitachi Energy is transmitting that power to the UK’s national grid. This is the first time HVDC technology has been used on a UK wind farm.

The first two GE Renewable Energy 13 MW Haliade-X turbines were installed in early September, and this is the first time Haliade-X units have been energized offshore anywhere in the world.

The Haliade-X turbines are 260 meters (853 feet) tall. To put that into perspective, each is as tall as the Rockefeller Center in New York. Each turn of their 107-meter-long (351-foot-long) blades will produce enough clean energy to power an average UK household for two days.

Once it’s complete, Dogger Bank will comprise 277 giant offshore turbines capable of producing enough clean energy to power the equivalent of six million homes annually. It will deliver yearly CO2 savings equivalent to taking 1.5 million cars off the road.

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is being developed and built by the UK developer SSE Renewables in a joint venture with Norway’s Equinor and Vårgrønn (a joint venture by Eni Plenitude and Hitec Vision).

Read more: One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms will use recyclable turbine blades

Photo: Dogger Bank

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