As part of the building process, there is a period that the assets are managed and troubleshooted by SGRE. The wind farm has come to the end of the warranty and has now been handed over to Ørsted. With this development, Ørsted now fully manages its entire UK fleet, which boasts a total capacity of 5.6GW—sufficient to power over six million UK homes.
Hornsea 2, located 89 km (55.3 miles) off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea, is Ørsted's 12th operational offshore wind farm in the UK. As the world's largest offshore wind farm, it spans 462 square kilometres (178 square miles) and has been operational since August 2022.
This milestone is the result of meticulous planning and coordination to ensure a smooth transition.
Darren Ramshaw, head of generation, UK East, said: “We couldn’t have got this far without the hundreds of dedicated people using their expertise through the whole process, from licenses, consents, building and development, all the way to the technicians who are servicing day-to-day. Hornsea 2 shows our business's collaborative success, leveraging expertise from across Ørsted to ensure safe and reliable generation on the world’s largest wind farm. I’m proud of the teams involved, and a huge thanks to SGRE for collaborative work. It’s incredible to work with another business who champions the Humber area.”
Hornsea 2 is a far shore site, which means technicians live out at sea on a service operations vessel for two weeks at a time. The vessel has a fitness centre, chefs cooking meals and space for colleagues to connect and decompress. Almost 75% of the people in Ørsted’s UK East team live within an hour’s drive of the Grimsby base.
Andy Greenleaf, head of far shore, UK East, commented: “When we transferred to full operational control for Hornsea 1 last year it provided invaluable lessons for our post-SWA operations at Hornsea 2. The project team has demonstrated exceptional dedication over the past three years to prepare us for this moment.”
Hornsea 2, whilst in construction, donated £1million to Horizon Youth Zone as a cornerstone sponsor. The dedicated facility, for 8-19-year-olds or up to 25 for those with additional needs, will be a safe space for Grimsby’s young people and give them a choice of over 20 activities to enjoy every day, including indoor climbing, sports, arts, drama, music, media, cooking and more. The facility will be opening later this year.
