Hornsea 2 Offshore Wind Farm

Wind Project Site

Title: Hornsea 2 Offshore Wind Farm

Status:

In Operation

Project Manager:

Ørsted

Turbine Developer:

Siemens Gamesa

Website:

External Link

Construction Start:

October 2, 2020

Operation Start:

August 31, 2022

Info Last Updated:

July 13, 2023

Contact:

Info
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Details

Technology:

Fixed Offshore Wind

Project Scale:

Commercial Farm

Turbine Model:

SG 8.0-167 DD

Hub Height:

200 m

Rotor Diameter:

167 m

Number of Turbines:

165

Capacity per Turbine:

8 MW

Installed Capacity:

1320 MW

Support Structure:

Monopile

Inter-Array Cables:

66 kV

Export Cables:

Buried Seafloor Cables

Export Cable Voltage:

220 kV

Number of Export Cables:

Cable Landfall:

Horizontal Directional Drill

Physical Site:

Shallow Water (<60m), Marine, Hard-Bottom Habitat

Water Depth:

30-40m

Distance from Shore:

89 km

Country:

United Kingdom

Description

Hornsea 2 was the world’s largest wind farm when it came online on August 31st, 2022, with 165 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD turbines and monopile foundations made by EEW, for a total compacity of 1.32 GW. The farm covers an offshore area of 462km² and is located directly next to Hornsea 1 in the North Sea off the coast Grimsby, England.

For more information on the Hornsea projects, check out this 60 minutes video!

Location

Hornsea 2 is located 89 km (55.302 miles) off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea, adjacent to Hornsea 1. Hornsea 2 is located 55 miles east of the Port of Grimsby. The cable makes landfall at Lincolnshire’s Horseshoe Point beach.

Licensing Information

2020: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Safety Zone Permit
2019: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Decommissioning Programme
2018: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Development Consent Order (DCO) Amendment
2016: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Development Consent Order (DCO)
2016: Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Deemed Marine Licences (DML)

Project Timeline

August 2022: Hornsea Two becomes fully operational
October 2020: Offshore construction begins
April 2019: Onshore cable installation work begins
July 2018: Construction of onshore substation commenced
April 2018: Site investigations offshore and enabling works on the onshore substation commenced
September 2017: Contract for Difference awarded to the Project and Final Investment Decision made
August 2016: Secretary of State grants Development Consent Order
October 2012: Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report

Key Environmental Issues

Key species known to occur in the project area are harbor porpoises, white-beaked dolphins, minke whales, as well as grey and harbor seals.

Prior to any construction activities taking place, dedicated Marine Mammal Observers (MMOs) will monitor the area for any animals that could be affected by the noise produced from pile driving. Monitoring is taking place from DEME’s jack-up vessels during the installation of the monopiles, as well as Heerema’s semisubmersible crane vessel Sleipnir during the construction of the two offshore substations.

In addition to visual monitoring to ensure marine mammals are not within close proximity to piling operations, acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs) are used to deter animals from the area to protect them from harmful levels of noise. Should a mammal be detected within the designated protection zone piling operations are delayed until it leaves the area.

Metadata Documents

Hornsea Three Environmental Monitoring Plan for Impacts Associated with Cable Protection (Royal Haskoning DHV 2021)
Hornsea Project Two Offshore Wind Farm Decommissioning Programme (Ørsted 2019)
Report on the Implications for European Sites Proposed Hornsea Offshore Wind Farm (Zone 4) - Project Two (The Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales 2015)
Hornsea Project 2 Environmental Impact Assessment (SMart Wind 2012)
Behavior of Scandinavian Bats During Migration and Foraging at Sea (Ahlén et al. 2009)
Co-Occurrence of Cetaceans and Seabirds in the Northeast Atlantic (Skov et al. 1995)

Phase	Stressor & Receptor	Design and Methods	Results	Publications	Data
Baseline	Fish	Fish Baseline Study Intertidal fish surveys were conducted in 2011.	Complete 22 taxa of fish were caught in the intertidal fish surveys.	SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Invertebrates	Shellfish Potting Surveys In 2011, shellfish potting surveys were conducted (following CEFAS guidelines) along the cable route looking at commercial lobster catches.	Complete Shellfish record stayed standard year to year.	SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Cetacean Survey Between 1980-1994, two whale observer were located on a cruising ship to record the boat position and any visible species.	Complete 1.2 cetaceans were recorded per 10-minute period.	Skov et al. 1995	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Physical Environment	Trawl study Between 2010-2012, approximately 50 trawling sites were examined along the site and cable path.	Complete 46 fish and 13 shellfish were recorded.	SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Bats	Boat-based Bat Survey Coastal areas and islands of the Scandinavian Peninsula and islands of southern Sweden and Denmark were surveyed from July to October in 2005, 2006, and 2008. They used 38 nights for studies from boats (and some small islands) and made observations 4 h from sunset.	Complete Hornsea 2 will not have a significant environmental impact on bats.	SMart Wind 2012, Ahlén et al. 2009	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Boat Based Survey Monthly boat-based surveys were conducted between March 2010 - February 2011.	Complete Monthly boat-based surveys were conducted between March 2010 - February 2011.	SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Seabird Survey Between 1980-1994, one seabird observer was located on a cruising ship to record the boat position and any bird species.	Complete Between 1980-1994, one seabird observer was located on a cruising ship to record the boat position and any bird species.	Skov et al. 1995, SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Aerial Survey An aerial survey across Hornsea zone 2 was conducted in June 2012.	Complete An aerial survey across Hornsea zone 2 was conducted in June 2012.	SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Ecosystem Processes	Seabed Surveys 65 sites were surveyed using digital photography and video in July 2011.	Complete Recorded status of benthic habitat.	SMart Wind 2012	No data publicly available.
Operations	Habitat Change Physical Environment	SAC Survey In 2021, the transects commenced 50m from the edge (at right angles from the cable route) of the proposed cable protection boundary. The transects will cross the cable protection and continue 50m away from the boundary of the cable protection berm on the opposite side.	In Progress As all the monitoring surveys are designed to be carried out to the same specification from preconstruction, through operation and post-decommissioning, the monitoring results will inherently identify recovery of the impacted environment.	Royal Haskoning DHV 2021	No data publicly available.
Operations	Noise Marine Mammals	Marine Mammal Observers (MMOs) In October 2020, a specialized MMO team was brought in to pause pile driving during periods of marine mammal activity.	Completed Impacts to marine mammals during the Hornsea Two wind farm construction activities have been negligible.	ON&T 2020	No data publicly available.