Project Overview
Hornsea Wind Farm is situated in the North Sea 75 miles off the east coast of England. Construction of Hornsea One started in January 2018, and the first turbines began supplying power to the UK national electricity grid in February 2019.
At the time of construction it was the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, covering an area the size of more than 58,000 football pitches and designed to produce enough green energy for more than a million homes.
The electricity produced by the turbines is transmitted via undersea cables to one of three large offshore substations. From there, the cable comes ashore at Horseshoe Point in North-East Lincolnshire. It then continues through an underground cable to a high-voltage onshore substation in North Killingholme, where it connects to the UK National Grid.
The cable connection of the offshore platforms requires reactive power control, which makes the use of variable shunt reactors necessary. These are housed in bunds as a secondary containment system to mitigate environmental and safety risks.
Dura Composites worked with clients Ørsted and Balfour Beatty to provide phenolic GRP Dura Grating bund flooring which addressed the key challenges of traditional steel grating systems while meeting stringent safety and performance standards.