WORLD ’ S LARGEST WIND FARM PROJECT UNDERWAY
Earlier this year , construction began on the world ’ s largest offshore wind turbine project in the North Sea .
Located 125km off the coast of Yorkshire on a shallow sandbank called Dogger Bank , the wind farm will include three separate interconnected projects and once completed , will produce enough energy to power 4.5 million homes in the United Kingdom ( about 5 % of the UK ’ s electricity demands ).
Spanning 592 square kilometres , an area nearly twice the size of Malta , the project will also use the Haliade-X 12 MW made by General Electric , the largest wind turbines ever built .
Each of the 190 ‘ mega-turbines ’ set to be installed are 260 metres in height , nearly three times the size of the Big Ben clock tower and have blades as long as a football pitch .
The UK government also recently announced plans to become “ the world leader in low-cost clean power generation ” with a goal of powering every home in the UK with offshore wind power by 2030 . More wind energy projects are currently underway with two giant offshore wind farms off the coast of Norfolk recently given the green light .
Dutch , German , and Danish electrical grid operators are also collaborating to build a North Sea Wind Power Hub complex in Dogger Bank as part of a European system for sustainable electricity . The power hub would interconnect the three national power grids with wind farms built on artificial islands in 14
OTWO 16 / NOVEMBER 2020