Equinor, SSE to Develop Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm

Image courtesy of Equinor

Norway’s Equinor and its British partner, SSE, were awarded contracts to develop three large-scale offshore wind project in the Dogger Bank region of the North Sea. Earlier this summer, Equinor was selected to develop New York’s 816-megawatt Empire Wind offshore project in the New York Bight, which it will develop in partnership with Bay State Wind.    

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The North Sea announcement comes after 10 years in development and, upon completion, the project will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm development with a total installed capacity of 3.6 gigawatts.

The Dogger Bank wind farm will comprise three projects: Creyke Beck A, Creyke Beck B and Teesside A. These are estimated to trigger a total capital investment of more than $11 billion between 2020 and 2026. The joint venture will be seeking non-recourse project financing to fund the development. SSE will act as the lead operator during the construction phase and Equinor as the lead operator for operations.

Dogger Bank map. Image courtesy of Equinor

Dogger Bank fact sheet

The offshore wind park will be located nearly 81 miles east of the Yorkshire Coast in the U.K. North Sea, where the water depth ranges from 66 to 115 feet. The projects will each have an installed capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, which combined can cover approximately 5 percent of the U.K.’s estimated electricity generation.

The first project is anticipated to be operational in 2023 with a 50-year lease term. The wind turbine generators are expected to exceed 10 megawatts, installed on monopile foundations. The transmission system will be high voltage direct current due to the long distance to the onshore grid connection point. The project will mark the first use of HVDC for offshore wind in the U.K.