East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm reaches milestone
July 28, 2020
The East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea is fully operational, according to ScottishPower Renewables.
(Courtesy ScottishPower Renewables)
Each turbine stands on a 65-m (213-ft) tall three-legged jacket foundation manufactured and assembled by Navantia in Spain, Lamprell in the UAE, and Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
East Anglia ONE, a joint venture between ScottishPower Renewables and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group, is a £2.5-billion ($3.2-billion) project and the first of four offshore wind farms ScottishPower Renewables is developing in the region.
Located 43 km (27 mi) off the Suffolk coast, all 102 Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines are fully operational. Each year, the 714-MW park is expected to produce enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of more than 630,000 homes.
Around 20% of the turbine installation and around half the turbine connection work was completed during lockdown, with ScottishPower Renewables and its project partners transforming how they worked to get the job done. This included switching to a higher number of smaller vessels, creating crew ‘households’ who lived and worked together at all times, introducing new welfare protocols and minimizing crew changes.
(Courtesy ScottishPower Renewables)
Navantia built the offshore substation.
The company added that the project brought major benefits to the local economy, regional jobs market and wider UK supply chain. Almost 3,500 jobs were sustained during the construction phase, which began in 2017, while 100 long-term skilled jobs have been created at the operations and maintenance base in Lowestoft.
