Construction begins for UK’s 1.2GW Hornsea Project One windfarm

Danish power company Ørsted, formerly Dong Energy, has started construction works at its Hornsea Project One windfarm in England, UK.

The wind power project is expected to become the biggest offshore windfarm in the world once completed.

It will be equipped with 174 wind turbines and feature a power generation capacity of 1.2GW.

The Hornsea Project One is located 120km off the coast of Yorkshire and will be equipped with a total of 174 monopiles.

The first monopile has been successfully installed by GeoSea’s installation vessel, Innovation, which is able to carry up to four monopiles at a time.

Each monopile is 65m-long, weighs approximately 800t and has a diameter of 8.1m.

GeoSea’s Innovation unit will also be used to install some of the transition pieces for the windfarm.

The vessel is scheduled to be joined by the A2Sea vessel Sea Installer in March in order to continue the installation of the transition pieces.

Hornsea Project One programme director Duncan Clark said: “Onshore, we are continuing to construct the East Coast Hub, which will serve as an operations and maintenance base for our existing windfarms in the area and both Hornsea Project One, and Project Two, which we took a final investment decision on last year.

“These windfarms will not only greatly contribute to the UK’s goal of de-carbonising our energy system, they are also bringing jobs and investment to Grimsby and the North East.”

The Hornsea Project One windfarm is being constructed over an area of approximately 407km².

The project is expected to become operational in 2020 and will be capable of generating enough wind power to meet the electricity requirements of more than one million homes across the UK.