Huge 350km cabling hooks wind farm up to The Grid
LINK RUNS FROM HORSESHOE POINT TO NORTH KILLINGHOLME
ASTAGGERING 350 km of high voltage electrical cabling has now been laid to connect Hornsea Two offshore wind farm to the National Grid. Contractor VolkerInfra has completed the installation, which runs from landfall at Horseshoe Point to the new substation at North Killingholme, skirting North East Lincolnshire. It followed the same route as Hornsea One, which it will succeed as the world’s largest offshore wind farm when built.
Hornsea Three - just given the goahead by the government - will not connect in the same place, with cabling heading south to Norwich, through North Norfolk from the site 89km off the East Yorkshire coast. Mark Robinson, VolkerInfra senior operations manager, said: “We are delighted to have reached a significant milestone on this highly strategic project for our client Ørsted. The team has successfully completed the installation of three 220kV circuits along the 39km onshore cable route for the Hornsea two wind farm.” Thanking all involved, he said the works - involving significant mechanical trench digging - had been delivered ahead of schedule. Reinstatement works are expected to continue on the ground until mid-2021 as work also continues 89km offshore. Luke Bridgeman, Ørsted’s deputy director for Hornsea Two, said: “Our teams have persevered relentlessly throughout this pandemic, for which we are deeply thankful. They have maintained a clear focus on collaborative behaviours, ensuring that the works were delivered with the highest standards of safety and within the original project programme.”
Once complete in 2022, Hornsea Two will feature 165 8MW turbines, generating a total of 1.4GW of clean energy. The offshore wind farm will have the capacity to provide electricity for well over 1.3 million homes in the UK.
David Morgan, senior project lead at Ørsted said: “It has been a difficult year to deliver a project of this scale but VolkerInfra has been a great partner to tackle this challenge with.”