Wind development in the United Kingdom has been rising significantly: The generation of electricity from wind power has grown by 715% from 2009 to 2020. This has caused the country’s turnover from wind energy to be at almost £6 billion in 2019. Wind power generates about 25% of the needed electricity in the UK which makes it the biggest source of renewable electricity in the UK. As of 2023, the UK had a total installed capacity of 28 GW from over 11 thousand wind turbines. While offshore wind is a very prominent renewable energy source in the UK, onshore wind is just as important. The 28GW total capacity of wind energy come from 14 GW onshore and 14 GW offshore wind. As one of the best locations for wind power worldwide, it comes as no surprise that a lot of companies develop large-scale wind farms in the United Kingdom. In this article, our Renewables team has chosen three particularly interesting ones to present to you.
1) Ørsted (Frederica, Denmark)
The UK is home to the largest operating offshore wind farm in the world, which is located 89 kilometres off the coast of Yorkshire in the North Sea. The wind farm, called Hornsea 2, has a capacity of 1,386 MW which is enough for an entire city the size of Manchester. It was commissioned in 2022. Hornsea 2 is part of a huge wind farm development by the Danish energy company Orsted. Because of the energy crisis, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the search for alternative energy sources has become more important than ever before. Although only founded in 2006, the company is the world leader regarding offshore wind and as such, has been working intensively on developing new renewable energy assets.
2) ScottishPower Renewables (Belfast, United Kingdom)
ScottishPower Renewables is a subsidiary of the Iberdrola group which is one of the world’s leading wind energy producers. The subsidiary is focused on developing wind projects across the United Kingdom. There is a reason why this company made our list: The world’s very first floating offshore wind farm was developed by ScottishPower in cooperation with Shell. Located off the coast of Peterhead in northeast Scotland, Hywind Scotland is not only the world’s first floating offshore wind farm but also the world’s best-performing offshore wind farm: Since its comissioning in 2017, it has achieved a capacity factor of 54% over its first five years of operations. Moreover, the renewable energy developer announced the acquisition of 16 wind and solar projects with a total installed capacity of 2.1GW in July 2022, which further doubled the capacity of the group.
3) EDP Renewables (Madrid, Spain)
EDP Renewables is a subsidiary of the french company EDF group. The subsidiary specialises in renewable energy production which includes the development and financing of the construction of renewable energy assets, as well as the management of operations and maintenance. Active in 22 countries with wind energy as the largest sector, the developer has an installed global capacity of over 14GW. In October 2021, the Madrid-based group announced their intention to invest up to £660m in wind and solar energy in the UK. By 2025, the company aims to have 5 to 7GW in operation or construction, as well as 5 to 10GW of projects in the latter stages of development.
Image Source: Arteum.ro via Unsplash (20.04.2023)
