The world’s largest offshore wind farm is going to get even larger

Michelle Lewis

- Oct. 7th 2022 12:18 pm PT

There are plans in place to develop the UK’s Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in three phases: A, B, and C. It will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm upon completion, with an installed capacity of 3.6 gigawatts (GW). And it looks likely that it will get a fourth phase, Dogger Bank D, making it even more massive.

Dogger Bank, which is located between 78 and 180 miles (125 and 290 km) off the east coast of Yorkshire, is a joint venture between Norwegian energy giant Equinor (40%), British utility SSE Renewables (40%), and Italian energy company Eni Plenitude (20%). SEE Renewables and Equinor are looking into creating Dogger Bank D. A spokesperson told OffshoreWind.biz:

SSE Renewables and Equinor are currently assessing seabed for the potential of expanding Dogger Bank Wind Farm, which is currently under construction, with an additional phase, Dogger Bank D. The potential project is supported by a grid connection for up to 1320 [megawatts] MW.

Surveys on the potential Dogger Bank D site started in August and are expected to conclude at the end of November.

A, B, and C alone will be capable of powering up to six million UK homes once it’s completed in 2026 – and there are approximately 28.1 million households in the country.

If the fourth phase is carried out, the capacity of the world’s largest offshore wind farm would reach nearly 5 gigawatts.

In May, Electrek reported that offshore construction work had officially started with the installation of the first length of HVDC export cable off the Yorkshire coast. Dogger Bank will be the first HVDC-connected wind farm in the UK.

In December 2021, SSE and Equinor announced that they had secured financing to proceed with the construction of the $3.98 billion Dogger Bank C.

GE Renewable Energy will provide 87 units of the enormous Haliade-X 14 MW wind turbines for Dogger Bank C. As Electrek previously reported, “According to GE, one turbine can generate up to 74 GWh of gross annual energy production, saving up to 52,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of the emissions from 11,000 vehicles in one year.”