Far Offshore Pioneer Turns Ten

Ørsted’s Horns Rev 2 offshore wind farm has marked a ten year anniversary since its official inauguration by HRH The Crown Prince of Denmark on 17 September 2009.

At the time of the inauguration, the 209MW Horns Rev 2 was the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

Located in the Danish North Sea at a distance of 60 kilometres from the Danish Port of Esbjerg, Horns Rev 2 was also the first offshore wind farm located that far from shore and in waters with such high waves.

The wind farm’s 91 wind turbines are placed in a fan formation to better utilise the wind, and the foundation is constructed of both steel and concrete, so it’s better equipped to withstand the extreme conditions at sea. Furthermore, an accommodation platform was installed in connection with an offshore wind farm for the first time in history.

“Horns Rev 2 has meant that we’ve had to be innovative and develop new ways of working and organising the work right from the outset, so we can keep on ensuring that we generate large volumes of green power on a daily basis, while at the same time maintaining a high safety standard,” said Allan Due Overbeck, Head of Operations for Horns Rev 2.

According to Ørsted, Horns Rev 2 proved that it was possible to generate offshore wind power on a large scale far from shore, and the experience gained from Horns Rev 2 has contributed to bringing down the costs of offshore wind power, so that the European offshore wind projects rolled out in these years are fully competitive with power generated by fossil energy sources.

Ørsted is currently commissioning the offshore wind farm Hornsea 1 in the North Sea approximately 120 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast in the UK. Here, each wind turbine has a capacity three times that of a wind turbine at Horns Rev 2, and the wind farm will have a total capacity of 1,218MW, making Hornsea 1 the largest offshore wind farm in the world once it’s ready for production at the end of 2019.