TECH

The world's largest offshore wind farm starts operating in the UK

The Hornsea 2 wind farm, located 89 kilometers off the east coast of the UK, is now generating energy from the Danish energy company Orsted. At full commissioning, the 462 km² plant will use 165 turbines and produce more than 1.3 GW, enough to power more than 1.3 million homes.

According to Orsted, Hornsea 2 will be “the world's largest offshore wind farm” by the time Hornsea 2 is fully operational in 2022. Although this title, according to Orsted, will remain with sister site Hornsea 1, and together they will go generate enough electricity to power more than 2.3 million homes.

The UK already has a very mature wind energy industry and is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. By 2030, authorities expect to produce 40 GW of wind power. For comparison purposes, the European Union, which the country left in January 2020, intends to produce 300 GW with wind turbines by the middle of the century.

The United States lags behind European partners, commercial operation of the country's first offshore wind farm with a capacity of 30 MW – Block Island Wind Farm, built in the waters off Rhode Island, only started at the end of 2016.

However, in March, a group of local ministries announced their intention to develop the industry – by 2030 it is planned to launch capacities capable of producing another 30 GW of electricity from the offshore wind. Among other things, it will create thousands of jobs and attract billions of dollars in investment.

Source: orsted.com