Ørsted’s Swedish Project Could Feature 27 MW Offshore Wind Turbines?

Ørsted’s Skåne Havsvindpark (Skåne Offshore Wind Farm) project offshore Sweden is planned to enter construction in 2026, subject to permitting process and final investment decision, and it looks like the developer expects to see wind turbines of more than 20 MW on the market by that time.

Namely, a consultation document Ørsted issued before submitting an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Skåne offshore wind farm this September shows that the 1,500 MW project could comprise as few as 55 wind turbines, depending on the nominal capacity of units to be used, which in this case would be 27 MW.

The company is looking at installing a maximum of 125 turbines at the project site in the Baltic Sea, approximately 22 kilometres south of Skåne, if a 12 MW model is used. With 20 MW turbines, the number would drop to 75 units and further to 55 if each of the wind turbines has a 27 MW capacity.

A 27 MW unit would have a rotor blade diameter of 320 metres and a maximum blade tip height of 385 metres.

At the 451-square-kilometre site, the turbines would be placed four to five times their rotor diameter from each other, according to the developer, with their exact locations within the site also depending on seabed and other conditions. 

The project could comprise up to four offshore substations and the foundations planned to be used for the wind turbines and platforms could be monopile, jacket, suction bucket, or gravity-based foundations.

The construction of the wind farm is planned to start in 2026 and the 1.5 GW Skåne project would be fully built in 2029, subject to weather conditions.

In 2026, works on the electrical system onshore would start, including the substation and the onshore part of the export cable, followed by offshore cabling along the export cable route in 2027. The following year, offshore substations would be installed and the installation work on foundations and inter-array cables would begin, with wind turbines planned for installation in 2029.