ØRSTED – HORNSEA TWO: Taking Tangible Action to Tackle Clean Energy Rollout

In a true marvel of engineering, ambition, and innovation, the world’s largest offshore wind farm generated first power in December 2021. Brought to the UK market by Ørsted, this mammoth project is the latest in a long list of major successes in the North Sea. When fully operational, the site will produce 1.32 GW and, alongside sister Hornsea One, will generate enough clean energy to power 2.3 million UK homes. This is a statement from Ørsted about what is possible in the transition away from fossil fuel-derived energy sources.

Obviously, success on this development has not been easy to come by. Building a major offshore wind farm – utilising a long list of specialist organisations, sourcing funding, and operating across international borders – during a global pandemic where the importance of workforce safety has been further heightened is a serious challenge.

Senior Programme Director, Patrick Harnett gives Energy Focus an insight into the hurdles the company and its partners have overcome.

“The last two years has seen us dealing with new day-to-day challenges as the pandemic took various unexpected twists and turns,” he explains. “To combat this, we quickly developed new operational procedures to limit the effect of COVID-19 on our operations. With so many people working in relatively close proximity for two weeks at a time it has been key to test people prior to them getting on the Service Operations Vessels (SOVs) and ensuring that isolation periods are maintained prior to joining SOVs out at offshore wind sites.”

COVID COOPERATION

He praises the great job done by employees to date and suggests downtime has been minimal throughout the supply chain despite some disruption expected when working on a project of this scale. “It’s a real testament to the dedication and resourcefulness of the team that we have remained on schedule,” he adds.

Collaboration has been vital for Hornsea Two. Contractors and service providers have delivered invaluable knowledge, experience, and insight, and the planning involved has allowed for cooperation on site on a scale not seen before.

“There’s always a strong focus on detailed planning and execution across our projects to ensure that everything remains on track, especially with a project like Hornsea Two which had a lot of simultaneous construction activity offshore,” says Harnett.

With full scale operation on the horizon, the teamwork displayed on site throughout the lifetime of the project will act as an example going forward, for all companies involved in the building of energy projects of scale, and will solidify relationships in the future.

“We work very closely with our partner companies and have the finishing line in sight as we install the remaining turbines and continue testing, commissioning, and energising Hornsea Two. A complex construction of this size and location is a true team effort. We owe its success to everyone that worked so hard throughout the pandemic to make it a reality.”

At Hornsea, 165 Siemens Gamesa 8MW turbines required installation, in waters more than 50 miles off the UK east coast, across a site covering more than 460 km². This enormous task required the input of many people over long periods of time. Working and living in close quarters was unavoidable, and new ideas and strategies were required. Alongside this development of new ideas, Ørsted was forced to reimagine its purpose – something for which it is well-known.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has given us an opportunity to refocus and, if we make the right choices now, potentially accelerate our progress to a more sustainable, low-carbon future. The offshore wind sector will play a prominent role in the future and we are confident that through continued collaboration between Government, the industry and business we can deliver environmental and economic benefits for generations to come.

“It has been encouraging to hear the determination from governments in the UK and across the world to maintain their climate ambitions and the understanding that accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy can both drive our economic recovery and build resilience for the future,” says Harnett.

ONE & TWO

Extra challenges came for Hornsea Two as the project team had to build adjacent to the enormous Hornsea One site which became fully operational at the end of 2019. At Hornsea One, 174 turbines now produce 1218 MW for the UK National Grid. But at Hornsea Two, new and more powerful turbines are being installed, and everything is bigger including the site.  

“Ultimately, Hornsea Two is a bigger project than Hornsea One and as scale increases new challenges often arise,” says Harnett. “With each project, we build on what we have learned, and we are getting better and leaner each time, while still keeping a strong emphasis on quality and, of course safety. We’ve put together an incredibly talented and knowledgeable team, which has been a key component in the success delivery of the project. In terms of technology, one of the main differentiators between the two projects is the use of Siemens Gamesa 8 MW 80-167 DD turbines, which can deliver 20% more annual output than those used for Hornsea One. The majority of the blades, which are around six metres longer than on Hornsea One, are manufactured and delivered from the Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull.”

Power generation from these turbines is improved thanks to advances in technology in terms of size and optimisation. Blades on Hornsea Two turbines are 81 metres long and stand atop 200-metre-high towers. With a rotor diameter of 167 metres, these monster structures are almost unparalleled in their size.

“Each turbine has the capability of providing enough energy for 160,000 hour-long video conferences. The project will use the world’s largest offshore substation and will deliver the most affordable electricity from offshore wind to date,” adds Harnett.

Major strides have been made and, with the announcement of first power at the end of last year, the end is in sight for Ørsted on what has been a journey dating back to August 2016 when the UK Secretary of State granted the Development Consent Order.

“Once fully operational later this year, Hornsea Two will be the world’s largest operating offshore wind farm, taking the title from its sibling project Hornsea One. Despite the challenges experienced over the last two years, we have adapted and been able to continue delivering on our construction milestones. By November 2021, 100 of our 165 8MW wind turbines were installed and we are still on track for completion in 2022. We are currently busy with installation of the remaining turbines and continuing testing, commissioning, and energising our wind farm for completion,” states Harnett.

THE POWER OF WIND

Beyond the lightbulbs and laptops being powered by Hornsea wind in 2.3 million UK households, the macroeconomic benefit behind the project is immense. A UK government must, the flow of money and opportunity through a dedicated value chain has been fantastic. A company keen on localisation and leaving a legacy, Ørsted is delighted with the wider benefits that the project has created.

“As well as making a significant contribution towards the UK’s renewable energy targets through projects like Hornsea Two, Ørsted is also committed to investing in the Humber region and supporting education and job creation,” explains Harnett. “We have developed a skills plan to highlight employment and supply chain opportunities associated with the construction, operation and maintenance of offshore wind farm projects. We’ve also built the UK’s largest operations base for offshore wind in Grimsby, providing around 500 jobs – with around 80% of staff living within an hour’s drive from the facility.”

Known as the East Coast Hub, this site opened in 2019, and benefitted from a £10 million investment for its quayside and office facilities. In the most recent recruitment drive for the East Coast Hub, Ørsted received over 1400 applications for 23 new technician positions.

In August 2020, Ørsted launched its Thrive programme, a fully-immersive safety training scheme in Grimsby, where offshore operators can come to train on innovative VR tech. A pioneering project, Thrive is being made available to all offshore companies and the wider region to ensure the industry impact of Hornsea Two. The project represents a £1.4 million investment and has created 60 jobs in the area, which Harnett describes as the ‘fulcrum of green energy’.

“More widely” he expands, “we partner with the Natural History Museum to support curated days of activities for schools that might not otherwise have this opportunity, helping to encourage interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. We also have a partnership with Teach First to address educational inequalities in the North East and a long term collaboration programme with Masters and PhD students enrolled in the Durham Energy Institute (DEI) at Durham University on projects and research that have positively impacted the renewable energy industry.”

Clearly, the company values its UK business and realises the opportunities that remain in the UK market when it comes to shifting to alternative energy generating resources. One of the world’s most advanced in terms of progress with wind energy – at the start of the year, the UK had around 104 GW of offshore installed capacity – the country still has a lot to offer but much more work to do.  

“The UK continues to be our largest market and offshore wind is set to play a key role in the journey to Net Zero. As of 2021, Ørsted has invested over £14 billion into UK offshore wind – our immediate focus is on our Hornsea Three and Hornsea Four projects,” details Harnett. “Assuming these wind farms are consented and commissioned at the planned scale, we expect to invest an additional a similar amount again during the next decade. Together the four Hornsea projects will deliver more than 7GW of clean, renewable electricity, helping the UK’s effort to generate enough power to meet its 2030 climate goals.”

In 2021, UK Prime Minister Borris Johnson announced that the country would achieve net zero emission by 2050 through a strategic plan that would remove fossil fuels from the country’s core energy mix and create a new industry in green energy, with exciting new jobs and major investment. Ørsted is ready to assist.

“Aside from Hornsea Three and Hornsea Four, which is currently going through the planning process, in January 2021, we won a joint bid with Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy Consortium to start developing a 1GW new floating offshore wind site off the north-east coast of Scotland. The project will be located off Caithness, around 50 km east of Wick and is Ørsted’s first large-scale floating wind development project anywhere in the world, as well as expanding Ørsted’s footprint from onshore wind to offshore wind in Scotland. We’re also moving forward in a number of global markets, including the US and Taiwan,” Harnett says.

HEALTHY PLANET?

In 2021, Bernstein Research released a report covering a long-discussed topic around how green and efficient wind farms actually are. Steel production, mining of metals for production of components, logistical emissions, sea pollution, damage to the natural environment, disturbing of animal habitat – the value chain has been questioned. But clear statistics demonstrate the effectiveness of wind farms. With much of the carbon footprint coming from the manufacture of towers, creation of concrete foundations, and building of fibreglass blades, the carbon cost has to be amortized over the decades of successful operation of the equipment. Ultimately, the research showed wind power to have a carbon footprint 99% lower than coal-fired power plants, 98% less than natural gas, and 75% less than solar power. According to Deepa Venkateswaran of Bernstein Research, “wind turbines average just 11 grams of CO₂ emission per kilowatthour of electricity generated. That compares with 44 g/kwh for solar, 450 g for natural gas, and 1000 g for coal.”  

Importantly, wind turbines do not release emissions that can pollute the air or water and they do not require water for cooling. There remains some concern over the impact on aquatic, bird, and bat life, but researchers are busy building plans to minimise any effect.

“As a company that’s committed to building a clean, sustainable future for us all, it’s imperative that we listen to our moral compass when it comes to constructing and operating offshore wind farms,” explains Harnett on Ørsted’s approach to planning the major projects. “We make every effort throughout the planning process to ensure we minimise our impact on the environment and other sea users, and we’re keen to continue making improvements to the way we work as our projects progress.

“For example, we’ve worked with academics at Oxford University and other institutions to reduce the amount of steel we use, while maintaining the longevity and structural integrity in the foundations of our offshore wind sites. Additionally, regarding maintenance, we have changed our approach to projects located far from the shore. Sending sailing ships out every day is inefficient when you’re travelling a long distance. So now we keep a custom designed vessel on site for two weeks at a time. Finding the space for renewable energy is vital to prevent catastrophic damage to our oceans, protect biodiversity and ensure the future health of our planet.”

Ørsted is a renewable energy company that takes tangible action to create a world that runs entirely on green energy. Hornsea Two is clear evidence of how this business lives its values. The benefits are obvious and the implementation is now proven. Prepare for more from Ørsted and more from wind power – the world’s next booming energy industry.