Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm Officially Opens

A new offshore wind farm officially opened this week that is capable of powering over half a million U.K. homes.

The Race Bank wind farm located off the North Norfolk coast is capable of generating 573 megawatts (MW) of green electricity from its 91 Siemens Gamesa 6 MW wind turbines. Many of these turbines feature the first blades to be manufactured at the Siemens Gamesa blade factory in Hull.

Race Bank is owned by Ørsted (50 percent), Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 (25 percent), Sumitomo Corporation (SSUMF) (12.5 percent) and funds advised by the Green Investment Group, Arjun Infrastructure Partners and Gravis Capital Management (12.5 percent) and operated from Ørsted’s East Coast Hub in Grimsby, the U.K.’s largest offshore wind Operations and Maintenance (O&M) base.

The project features a new way of carrying out offshore maintenance, using a state of the art Service Operation Vessel (SOV) that remains offshore with technicians working shifts of 14 days on and 14 days off.

Matthew Wright, Managing Director at Ørsted UK, said, “Race Bank is a hugely significant and innovative project, featuring the first ever turbine blades to be made in Hull and becoming our first wind farm in the UK to be operated using a new Service Operation Vessel.

“It’s also one of the fastest projects we have ever built, with a fantastic safety record, and this is testament to the hard work of the project team and the great relationship we have with our partners.”