World's largest offshore wind farm goes online in the UK

[Shawn Knight]

In context: Those responsible for operating and maintaining the wind farm are required to live on-site aboard the Service Operations Vessel (SOV) Edda Mistral for two weeks at a time before swapping out with another operational team. It's like working aboard a cruise ship but without the amenities or beautiful sights.

The largest offshore wind farm in the world is now online and generating power. The Hornsea One wind farm, located roughly 75 miles off the east coast of Grimsby in the North Sea, isn’t yet running at full capacity as only 50 of the 174 Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines are in operation.

David Coussens, deputy operations manager for Hornsea One, said they had to think creatively and come up with new ways of working to overcome the logistical and technical challenges of operating a massive power station 120km from the shore.

Even in its semi-operational state, the wind farm is able to generate enough juice to power up to 287,000 homes.

According to Offshore Wind, turbine installation will continue through the end of the summer with the project expected to be fully operational by sometime in 2020. Eventually, it’ll crank out enough power to supply clean electricity to over a million homes in the UK.

Lead image credit: Getty Images

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80367-world-largest-offshore-wind-farm-goes-online-uk.html

 

[Lounds]

Really impressive, I know some of the future turbines are going to be 10MW turbines as well.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Over 1000 megawatts potential peak. Electricity generating capacity of a large nuclear reactor.

Grimsby used to be a big fishing port in the middle of last century, arguably the biggest in the world at that time. The area was hit hard by fishing restrictions and it dwindled down to virtually nothing rapidly. Think Detroit.

Economically it was a total disaster for the area. Projects like this can bring new life to deprived coastal towns, because they generate many new good jobs. All those turbine transmissions will need to be routinely overhauled, among other big maintenance contracts.

 

[Bubbajim]

The picture doesn't really do justice to just how huge these things are. I know they look pretty simple, but they're an incredible feat of engineering.

Plus now Grimsby has had its first ever bit of good news.

 

[Badvok]

The biggest issue with wind farms is always how many hours can they operate, for how many hours is there adequate wind to turn the turbines? This information is kept very well hidden. What do we use as cover when there isn't sufficient wind?

 

[GeforcerFX]

The biggest issue with wind farms is always how many hours can they operate, for how many hours is there adequate wind to turn the turbines? This information is kept very well hidden. What do we use as cover when there isn't sufficient wind?

Nuclear, Biomass, Hydro electric, ocean current systems, or have various power storage devices. Biomass would be one of the better back ups for on demand needs cost wise. Electrical storage would appease all the eco freakos who don't understand surface carbon.

 

[neeyik]

One can see the current demand, supply and sourcing of electrical energy in the UK here:

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Biomass, tidal, hydroelectric are too small to make any appreciable difference when it's a non-windy day; nuclear runs at a fairly constant rate, so can't be relied to make up the losses, so we turn to coal and gas.

Although these large scale wind farms are designed, fabrication, built, and fully owned by the likes of the Netherlands, they've invested heavily in training and infrastructures in UK so that, as Vulcanproject pointed out, there's genuine hope for areas that have been hit hard by recession and closure of once-critical industries.