Offshore construction is complete at world-leading Hornsea One offshore wind farm, with the final turbine installed.
The 174th structure is now in place in the near North Sea, more than 100km off the Humber approaches.
Loaded out from Green Port Hull, with the 75m long blades made at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy’s factory there, the majority of the farm is already generating electricity, with owner and operator Ørsted adding it to the recently-opened £14 million East Coast Hub at Grimsby.
Duncan Clark, Ørsted’s programme director for Hornsea One, said: “The milestone of this last turbine being installed only nine months after the first one was erected is just one small part of this record-breaking project. Hornsea One has truly paved the way for the next generation of offshore wind farms.
“At the time of taking on the project, it’s scale and the technical pioneering required seemed a Herculean challenge, but a truly extraordinary effort from all those involved have managed to make this impressive feat of engineering the new norm.
“We have benefitted from fantastic working relationships with contractors and suppliers, and that includes vessel providers who have maintained a constant stream of communication to ensure that turbine installation has been concluded on time and within budget.”
Not only does it bring the world’s largest title to the East Coast of the UK – overtaking Walney Extension off the North West – the final sailing also saw the 500th turbine installed to be operated and maintained from Grimsby.
Components were assembled on the North Bank, then taken out by two specialist jack-up vessels, The Bold Tern, owned by Fred. Olsen Windcarrier and DEME Group’s Sea Challenger.
On average, it has taken around 12 hours of precision working to install each turbine, with more than 8,000 people having worked on it.
Now standing 190m above sea level, each 7MW turbine will be able to power a UK home for over a day with each single rotation. It is the first wind farm to have the capacity to produce more than 1GW of electricity.
The 174 turbines and three onshore substations are in an area covering more than 400 sq km.
A further period of commissioning will now take place, before an official inauguration next year.
Offshore construction started in January 2018, when the first monopile foundation was installed by GeoSea’s installation vessel, Innovation. Turbines were added from early this year.
