Base for giant Dogger Bank offshore wind farm will be on Tyneside

Offshore wind farms are getting bigger and bigger. ScottishPower Renewables and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group report that they have installed the last of 102 Siemens Gamesa turbines at the 714 MW East Anglia ONE offshore windfarm, 43 km off the Suffolk coast. Installation was undertaken by Siemens Gamesa using the Sea Installer and Sea Challenger vessels.

Turbine components were pre-assembled and loaded out from Peel Ports Great Yarmouth. The components consist of 75 m fibre glass blades, tower sections and nacelles, which have been on view along the Great Yarmouth seafront as the 90 m high towers were constructed on the quayside.

Turbine blades were manufactured by Siemens Gamesa at its factory in Hull, while some of the towers were produced in Machrihanish, Scotland by CSWind UK.

The wind farm is already producing green energy, with commissioning still underway.

Charlie Jordan, East Anglia ONE Project Director at ScottishPower Renewables, said: ‘This project is testament to the leading role East Anglia is playing in offshore wind and is delivering tangible benefits for its people, businesses and communities – including the creation of more than 800 jobs across the region.’

Jordan continued: ‘With COVID-19 bringing much of the economy to a standstill and affecting everyone across the UK, ensuring we have a safe and secure supply of energy is critical to supporting our vital services. This is why the continuation of this project is deemed as essential work by the government and ourselves.’

Meanwhile, the two companies behind what will eventually be by far the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank – Equinor and SSE Renewables – have announced plans to build a new operation and maintenance base at the Port of Tyne.

Construction of the wind farm, led by SSE Renewables, began in January and, as operator for the operations phase, Equinor will construct this new O&M base, and operate the wind farm for its expected life of more than 25 years.

The project will comprise three 1.2 GW phases, with each phase located more than 130 km from the North East coast of England. When fully operational it will be able to provide enough renewable electricity for over 4.5mn UK homes.

The new facility will include both office space and a warehouse. The project is expected to generate over 200 direct jobs in the region, as well as opportunities for companies at all levels of the supply chain.

Stephen Bull, Senior Vice President for Equinor’s North Sea New Energy Solutions said: ‘The North East has a strong industrial heritage and a supply area that stretches north and south of the River Tyne. With a strong lowcarbon vision for the future; as well as targets to become net zero in its own operations by 2030, the Port of Tyne is clearly well set up to attract future investments which we hope will complement our activities.’

Last, and moving onshore, ScottishPower has signed two agreements to develop wind farms in central Scotland that could see investment of over £150mn. The acquisition of wind farm developments from local individual shareholders of 3R Energy and Mitchell Energy will see a combined capacity of 165 MW of new clean electricity generation brought to completion near Douglas in South Lanarkshire, 55 km south of Glasgow.

When added to a similar, 55 MW, project in the area majority owned by ScottishPower, these developments will create a clean energy cluster in South Lanarkshire totalling 220 MW of generating capacity, says ScottishPower. The project also includes the repowering of Scotland’s first commercial wind farm, Hagshaw Hill, which the company took ownership of in 1996.