The first of 277 turbines at Dogger Bank has started producing electricity to power UK homes and businesses.
The National Grid has connected Dogger Bank in the North Sea, set to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, to the UK electricity transmission network.
The 277-turbine wind farm is located 70 nautical miles off the coast of Yorkshire. Upon its completion, scheduled for 2026, Dogger Bank will occupy an area almost as large as Greater London. It is expected to produce 3.6GW of power, enough for six million homes a year.
The wind farm was jointly developed by Britain’s SSE and Norway’s Equinor and Vårgrønn.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has celebrated the news, saying Dogger Bank will bolster energy security, create jobs, lower electricity bills and keep the country on track to reach net zero.
“Offshore wind is critical to generating renewable, efficient energy that can power British homes from British seas,” he said. “I’m proud that this country is already a world leader in reaching net zero by 2050, and by doubling down on the new green industries of the future, we’ll get there in a way that’s both pragmatic and ambitious.”
The wind farm will be built in three phases: Dogger Bank A, B and C. Currently, power from the project’s first offshore wind turbine at Dogger Bank A is being transmitted to the National Grid via a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system, marking the first use of HVDC technology on a UK wind farm.
This followed the installation of the first of GE Vernova’s ground-breaking Haliade-X 13MW turbines, one of the largest and most powerful globally, at the Dogger Bank site. This is the first time Haliade-X units have been energised offshore anywhere in the world.
Each rotation of the 107m-long blades on Dogger Bank’s first operational turbine can produce enough clean energy to power an average British home for two days.
John Twomey, director of customer connections for the National Grid, said: “Congratulations to everyone involved – Dogger Bank’s first power is a momentous engineering achievement, and marks another milestone in Britain’s clean energy transition.
“It’s a particularly proud moment for our connections and asset operations teams, whose work reinforcing our Creyke Beck substation to connect the wind farm’s green power to our network is a key part of this project’s success story.”
At 260m tall, the gigantic turbines at Dogger Bank are almost twice the size of the London Eye and the same height as New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. 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 currently in operation.
Last month, the UK’s renewable energy strategy suffered a blow when no new offshore wind projects were bought by developers at the latest Contracts for Difference auction.
A report by Robert Gordon University found that up to 95,000 jobs in the UK’s offshore energy sector would be at risk if the rate of investment and activity in UK renewables does not increase significantly.
