2021 was a brilliant year for renewable energy installation, especially wind energy despite the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The wind industry has enjoyed its second-best year ever, in 2021 after 2020’s record, 95.3 GW [1]. Although the onshore wind has the leading role in the wind energy market, offshore wind has had a skyrocketing increase compared to its land-based rival. In 2021, offshore wind witnessed a more than 3 times increase, from 6.9 GW in 2020 to 21.1 GW in 2021 [2]. The annual global offshore wind market is expected to grow from 21.1 GW in 2021 to 31.4 GW in 2026 under current policies, bringing its share of global new installations from today’s 22.5% to 24.4% by 2026 [3].
Which project is the Largest Offshore Wind Farm?
As a massive offshore wind project, Hornsea Wind Farm is a four-round/phase wind farm which began construction in 2018 [4]. Phase one was completed in 2020, with a capacity of 1,218 MW, making it the largest Offshore Wind Farm in the World on its completion. Hornsea One consists of up to 174 wind turbine generators (WTGs). Its WTGs are Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines and are located 120km off the Yorkshire coast, covering an area of approximately 407 square kilometers [4]. Siemens Gamesa 7 MW wind turbines in this project have the following properties
- Its rotor diameter is 154 meters.
- Each blade has a 75-meter length.
- They have been installed in 25 to 30 meters of water depth.
- The tip height of the Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbine is 190 meters [5].
The project is 50% owned by Ørsted and 50% owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Ørsted is one of the largest offshore wind developers in both the world and the UK. Hornsea One offshore wind farm has a capacity of 1.2 GW that will provide enough power for more than 1 million homes [5].
Duncan Clark, program director of Hornsea One and Two, claimed that what makes Hornsea One wind farm more special is that it is the first offshore wind farm with a capacity of over 1 GW. To make this next generation of wind farms possible, the entire supply chain has really stepped up, improving products and processes, refining skills, and together leading offshore wind to its market-leading position, where it is now competitive in the cost of electricity [5].
Did You Know?
WindEdition offers a detailed map for offshore wind energy generators projects around the world
Including the correct coordinance, project name, capacity, and… you can checkout our Offshore Wind Map here.
Author: Hesam-Edin Hayati Soloot & Shahab Moghadam
References
[1] TaiyangNews, “Global RE Generation Capacity Exceeded 3 TW In 2021 With Solar Accounting For 849 GW”.
[2] SolarEdition, “Overview of Global Wind Energy Installation in 2021 with Market Outlook up to 2026”, written by Hesam-Edin Hayati Soloot & Amir Hayati Soloot.
[3] Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), “Global Wind Report 2022”.
[4] offshoreWind.biz, “DONG Tables Hornsea Project One Offshore Construction Schedule”.
[5] Orsted, “Hornsea One Offshore Wind Farm”.
