Offshore wind farm opens off the Norfolk coast

Race Bank, a new offshore wind farm capable of powering over half a million UK homes, will be officially opened at a ceremony in Grimsby today (June 13).

The wind farm, which covers a total area of 75km2, is located off the North Norfolk coast and is operated from Ørsted’s East Coast Hub in Grimsby. 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.

Race Bank is owned by Ørsted (50%), Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 (25%), Sumitomo Corporation (12.5%) and funds advised by the Green Investment Group, Arjun Infrastructure Partners and Gravis Capital Management (12.5%).

Danish firm Ørsted say they have worked closely with a number of UK suppliers on the Race Bank project. These include J Murphy, working on the onshore substation and onshore export cable installation, as well as cable manufacturers JDR and installation specialists DeepOcean, both based in Teesside.

Matthew Wright, Managing Director at Ørsted UK, said:

‘Race Bank is a fantastic infrastructure project and underlines Ørsted’s contribution to the UK’s energy transition. It’s also another clear signal of our firm commitment to Grimsby and the Humber, and the UK supply chain for offshore wind.’

‘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,’ he added.

Hisayuki Doi, General Manager of the Global Renewable IPP Department at Sumitomo Corporation said:

‘Sumitomo Corporation (SC) is particularly impressed by the quality and precision, how the Race Bank project has been realized; on time and budget, and most importantly: without any serious accidents.

‘Race Bank is setting a new and very important milestone for SC towards a greener and more renewable portfolio.

‘SC will further endeavour to explore the path towards a sustainable future, and SC is especially pleased of having the opportunity to walk along this path together with Orsted and Macquarie.’

Race Bank becomes the 10th UK offshore wind farm that Ørsted either owns and partly owns, and together these projects provide over 3,000 MW of green energy.