Second largest offshore wind farm in UK could power over 1m homes

The second largest offshore wind farm in the UK will provide enough power to meet the average daily needs of more than 1m homes.

Orsted’s Hornsea Four project, which will be built 69km off the Yorkshire coast, received consent from the government yesterday (12 July).

With a planned capacity of up to 2,600MW from up to 180 turbines, Hornsea Four’s capacity is second only to Hornsea Three, which has a planned capacity of 2,852MW.

The largest operational offshore wind farm in UK waters, Hornsea Two (1,386MW) was fully commissioned last August. Hornsea One (1,218MW) has been operating since 2020.

Ana Musat, executive director of policy at renewable energy trade organisation RenewableUK, said: “It’s great to see one of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms getting the green light from the government, at a time when we urgently need to get cracking on building new clean energy projects to generate the cheapest power for billpayers and enable us to bolster domestic supply chains. 

“Hornsea Four will strengthen Britain’s energy security significantly, helping us to move away from the volatility of international gas prices and closer towards energy independence, as well as enabling us to take a major leap forward towards net zero.”