Hornsea 3 Offshore Substation Jackets Start Taking Shape

August 22, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Heerema has commenced the construction of offshore substation jackets for the 2.9 GW Hornsea 3 wind farm in the UK, kicking off with a steel-cutting ceremony.

Heerema Hornsea 3 jackets — *Source: Heerema Fabrication Group via LinkedIn*

On 20 August, the company held the first steel-cutting ceremony for the jackets at Heerema Vlissingen in the Netherlands.

Ørsted, the developer of the Hornsea 3 offshore wind project, signed an EPCI contract with partners Aibel and Hitachi Energy for the two platforms in 2022. Activities on the two offshore substations began in April 2023.

The Norwegian company Aibel contracted Heerema Marine Contractors to transport and install the two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore converter platforms, including both jackets and platform topsides.

Aibel already did similar work at Ørsted’s Hornsea area, having installed the two Hornsea 2 offshore substations in 2021.

The Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, located approximately 160 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast, will feature 200 Siemens Gamesa’s 14 MW wind turbines and is expected to be operational in 2027.

Ørsted was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) for Hornsea 3 in July 2022 at an inflation-indexed strike price of GBP 37.35 per MWh in 2012 prices. After securing a CfD in 2022, the developer said that with 2.9 GW, Hornsea 3 was the largest single offshore wind farm in the world.

Once Hornsea 3 is completed, the combined capacity of Ørsted’s Hornsea offshore wind farms (Hornsea 1, 2, and 3) will be more than 5 GW, making this one of the world’s largest offshore wind zones.