Equinor announced that the first turbine at the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the UK’s North Sea started producing electricity on October 10, marking its first export of green power to Britain’s national grid. Dogger Bank is the world's largest offshore wind farm with a generating capacity of 3.6GW, under development in three phases, targeting completion by 2026. When fully complete, the capacity will make it capable of producing enough energy to power the equivalent of six million British homes annually.
The Dogger Bank project has delivered a number of world-firsts that will significantly accelerate the speed at which future offshore projects can be developed. This includes deployment of new 13MW and 14MW turbine technology. The large GE Haliade-X turbines feature blades stretching up to 107 meters, each rotation of which can produce enough energy to power an average UK household for two days. The project also marks the world's first installation of an unmanned offshore High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) substation platform, and first use of HVDC technology on a UK wind farm. For the installation of the wind turbines, the world's largest offshore jack-up wind installation vessel, the Voltaire, was utilized. The Voltaire has an impressive lifting capacity of 3,200 tons and is anultra-lowemission vessel.
Bjørn Inge Braathen, Equinor Korea Country Managing Director, said: "Mega-projects like Dogger Bank demonstrate the significant potential of offshore wind energy, in the era of carbon neutrality whilst also creating jobs and revitalizing local economies. Equinor aims to build on this experience when successfully developing large-scale offshore wind farms in Korea in partnership with local communities and partners, contributing to Korea's carbon neutrality goals and stimulating regional economic activity like we do in the UK. We are not only developing the offshore wind project on the coast of Ulsan called Bandibuli with about 750MW capacity, but also seek to develop the Hoopoong & Chujin projects near Chuja Island with up to 3GWcapacity.”
Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, said: “First power from Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, is a testament to the collaboration between the authorities, the project partners, suppliers and our host communities to realise this project.Set against the broader energy context, Dogger Bank demonstrates the best of what the offshore wind industry can offer, with innovative technologies, long-term jobs and economic growth and security of electricity supply at a major scale.A renewable mega-project like Dogger Bank constitutes an industrial wind hub in the heart of the North Sea, playing a major role in the UK’s ambitions for offshore wind and supporting its net zero ambitions.”
Equinor, as lead operator during the operational phase of the wind farm, will maintain and optimize Dogger Bank over its expected 35-year lifetime. Operations and maintenance will be carried out from the recently opened O&M base at the Port of Tyne. The base will host around 400 jobs, including staff from the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, Equinor, GE Vernova and North Star.The project is being developed and built by a joint venture comprising Equinor, SSE Renewables and Vårgrønn (a joint venture of Eni Plenitude and HitecVision). SSE Renewables is lead operator for the development and construction phase, while Equinor will be lead operator of the wind farm for its expected operational life of around 35 years.
At 260 meters tall, the gigantic Dogger Bank turbines are almost twice the size of the London Eye and the same height as New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. The first power milestone for the world-class Dogger Bank project marks the first of what will eventually be 277 giant turbines providing power from the project. Each of these turbines will be progressively installed and commissioned between now and planned full commercial operation in 2026. When complete, Dogger Bank will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, more than two and a half times the size of the largest offshore wind farm currently in operation.
