Wind Farm Double Size of Manhattan Unveiled in Irish Sea

(Bloomberg) -- Orsted A/S unveiled the world’s largest offshore wind farm, an 87-turbine complex in the Irish Sea covering an area more than double the size of Manhattan.

The Walney Extension off the coast of northwest England has a generating capacity of 659 megawatts and is capable of powering 590,000 homes, according to Danish company Orsted, the world’s biggest developer of offshore wind farms.

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind A/S and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA provided the turbines for the project that began construction in August 2015. The Vestas 8-megawatt turbines stand 195 meters tall while the 7-megawatt version by Siemens is 154 meters from sea level to blade tip.

Largest Offshore Global Wind Farms by Capacity

Source: Renewables U.K.

At 145 square kilometers, Walney overtakes another U.K. offshore wind farm, London Array, as the world’s largest. It uses less than half the number of turbines over a larger area to generate more power.

Orsted sold 50 percent of Walney to a group of Danish pension funds in November 2017. The U.K. currently operates 1,837 offshore wind turbines with an operational capacity of 7.1 gigawatts, according to trade association Renewable U.K.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Andrew Reierson, Lars Paulsson

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