World Days Away from Getting New Biggest Offshore Wind Farm

All wind turbines have been fully commissioned and are commercially operational at the 1.3 GW Hornsea Two in the UK which will soon become the world’s biggest single operational offshore wind farm.

The project’s owner and developer, Ørsted, expects the wind farm to be fully commissioned later this month, after the remaining reliability runs are concluded.

The 1,320 MW Hornsea Two generated its first power in December 2021; however, the works slowed down by the end of that month.

In its 2021 annual report released at the beginning of this year, Ørsted said it saw progress according to plan up until mid-December, but that the accelerating Omicron variant infection rates meant that it was not possible to man the vessels used for commissioning work according to plan.

At the time, the developer – who will soon divest half of its stake in Hornsea Two – said the project commissioning was still expected in the first half of this year, as planned.

However, the delays in putting the wind farm in full commercial operation have now shown up in Ørsted’s Q2 2022 results.

Namely, the company reported that the increase in earnings from its wind and solar assets in operation was partly offset by a negative effect from overhedging and ineffective hedges due to later than expected commissioning of the project.

The “negative effect” has amounted to DKK 2 billion (around EUR 269 million), according to the developer’s Q2 report.

The offshore wind farm, located some 89 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast, comprises 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines and will be capable of powering more than 1.3 million homes.

Once officially operational, Hornsea Two will take over the title of the world’s largest operating offshore wind farm from its predecessor, the 1.2 GW Hornsea One (also developed by Ørsted) which has been operational since 2020.

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