Hornsea 2, the world’s largest windfarm, enters full operation
Orsted has announced that the world’s largest installed windfarm, Hornsea 2, is now fully operational. The 1.3GW offshore wind farm comprises 165 wind turbines, located 89km off the Yorkshire Coast, which will help power over 1.4 million UK homes with low-cost, clean and secure renewable energy, according to the company's release.
The wind farm is situated alongside its sibling Hornsea 1, which together can power 2.5 million homes and make a significant contribution to the UK Government’s ambition of having 50 GW offshore wind in operation by 2030.
The Hornsea zone, an area of the North Sea covering more than 2,000 km2, is also set to include Hornsea 3. The 2.8 GW project is planned to follow Hornsea 2 having been awarded a contract for difference from the UK government earlier this year.
Hornsea 2 has played a key role in the ongoing development of a larger and sustainably competitive UK supply chain to support the next phase of the UK’s offshore wind success story. In the past five years alone, Orsted has placed major contracts with nearly 200 UK suppliers. Orsted has invested GBP 4.5 billion in the UK supply chain to date and expects to make another GBP 8.6 billion of UK supply chain investments over the next decade.
Orsted now has 13 operational offshore wind farms in the UK, providing 6.2GW of renewable electricity for the UK – enough to power more than 7 million homes. Hornsea 2 makes a significant contribution to Orsted’s global ambition of installing 30 GW offshore wind by 2030. Orsted currently has approx. 8.9 GW offshore wind in operation, approx. 2.2 GW under construction, and another approx. 11 GW of awarded capacity under development including Hornsea 3.
Just over a year ago, Orsted announced its 1000th turbine in UK water and welcomed a state-of-the-art new service operations vessel to its fleet, Wind of Hope.
Denmark based Orsted (Ørsted) develops, constructs, and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities, and bioenergy plants. Moreover, Orsted provides energy products to its customers. Orsted is the only energy company in the world with a science-based net-zero emissions target as validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and Orsted aims to deliver a net-positive biodiversity impact from all new renewable energy projects it commissions from 2030 at the latest. Orsted ranks as the world’s most sustainable energy company in Corporate Knights' 2022 index of the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world and is recognised on the CDP Climate Change A List as a global leader on climate action. Orsted employs 7,292 people. In 2021, the group's revenue was DKK 77.7 billion (EUR 10.4 billion).
