The UK’s first overseas wind farm is set to generate up to 10,000MW of energy and create thousands of jobs.
The combination of fixed and floating wind turbines will be located outside the UK’s territorial waters in the North Atlantic.
They will be connected to the UK by cutting-edge submarine power cables and will be able to pick up the slack by transferring renewable power into the energy grid even when closer wind farms are not operating.
This is according to Hecate Independent Power Limited (HIP), which announced the launch of the project this weekend.
The HIP Atlantic Project will initially look to bring 4,000MW of connections to the UK’s National Grid and has reportedly lodged formal applications to do so.
This initial stage will see four separate wind farms or ‘pods’ located in different parts of the Atlantic Ocean linked to four corresponding locations in the UK, each with its own underwater cable.
These high-capacity, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables are set to be manufactured at a purpose-built £200m facility, which will be located in the North East of England.
The first two ocean locations are expected to be sited off the eastern and southern coasts of Iceland.
If everything goes to plan, these sites, which will generate the first 2,000MW of the project, will be commissioned by 2025.
Sites will offer versatility in offshore generation
Other pods will be located in a different ‘meteorological catchment area’ from the UK’s current territorial wind farms in the North Sea and the Irish Sea.
This means that they could potentially provide power even if these current wind farm sites are becalmed.
Such an approach can provide a ‘geographical portfolio’, with diverse locations lowering the risk of a shortage in renewable energy when weather conditions are not favourable in any one site.
HIP said that the project would push UK-operated wind power far beyond territorial waters, extending more than 1,000km from the grid landfall points on the mainland.
Sir Tony Baldry, the chairman of HIP, said that the project would match the government’s vision of attracting investment and work to the North East and would also help to establish the UK as a global leader in offshore renewable wind power.
Manufacture and installation of the turbines and cables are expected to focus on the UK, with the first 2,000MW phase expected to generate 15,000 new jobs.
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