Wärtsilä to equip world’s largest offshore wind farm

Wärtsilä announced that it will supply its low voltage switchboards for the world’s first offshore reactive compensation station, a vital part of transmitting to shore the electricity produced by an offshore wind farm. The Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm, operated by DONG Energy, is currently under construction at Babcock Rosyth in Scotland and, upon completion, it will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

This follows a relevant contract, signed in January by Wartsila and Babcock International Group plc.

The company said that its switchboards are designed to withstand harsh offshore conditions, enhancing the reliability of the installation. The reactive compensation station enables the high voltage AC system to work with cable lengths longer than those previously used for offshore wind, and will be located between the offshore wind farm and shore.

Hornsea Project One is located 120 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast in Northern England and will span an area of approximately 407 square kilometres. Work to construct the reactive compensation station is ongoing and is set to be completed by engineering support services company Babcock in 2018. It is expected to be operational in 2020.

Hornsea Project One, when operational, will have a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, making it the world’s largest offshore wind farm. It will produce enough clean green electricity to power the equivalent of well over 1 million UK homes.

“The award of this contract together with other recent successes in the hydro-electric industry demonstrates our ability to support the renewable energy sector,” says Andy Dickinson, Managing Director of Wärtsilä UK Ltd.