Located nearly 27kms off Blakeney Point, the offshore wind farm is owned 50% by Ørsted. The other partners are Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 (25%), Macquarie Capital (12.5%) and Sumitomo (12.5%).
Ørsted said that completion of the 240-hour acceptance tests of all the wind turbines and the 200-hour test of the full wind farm confirmed that Race Bank is now capable of producing power at its full capacity.
The Danish firm further said that during the commissioning process of the final wind turbines, Race Bank had crossed 1TWh since the start of its construction.
Spread across an area of 75km2 in the UK North Sea, Race Bank features 91 Siemens Gamesa 6MW wind turbines. It generates enough electricity to meet the power consumption needs of more than half a million UK homes annually.
Race Bank project director David Summers said: “Full power and 1 terawatt hour of production are two fantastic milestones and have been achieved by the hard work and dedication of a significant number of people. Full power means that Race Bank can now produce enough green energy to power over half a million UK homes.”
“Not only have we achieved full power on schedule, but we’ve also done so safely, without compromising our high standards. I’m now looking forward to completing final activities on Race Bank and being able to officially open the project in the summer.”
Ørsted revealed that Race Bank will use a new service operation vessel (SOV) which will remain out at sea with the operations and maintenance team. The SOV is expected to improve the efficiency of maintaining the wind farm to a great extent.
In December 2016, Dong Energy divested 50% of its stake in Race Bank to the Macquarie Group for £1.6bn. Last year, Macquarie sold 12.5% of its stake to Japan’s Sumitomo.
Image: Race Bank offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea. Photo: courtesy of Ørsted.
