The completion of Britain’s largest offshore Wind Farm has been delayed by a year. Due to a chronic shortage of construction vessels. According to his SSE, the developer and energy supplier of the project. The Dogger Bank site has suffered significant disruption due to bad weather, storms and a lack of buildable vessels. Two important types of vessels are in short supply. A foundation vessel will pour the 1,000-ton foundation, and an installation vessel will install the turbine tower. A spokesperson for SSE said: “The Dogger Bank A turbine installation was affected by difficult weather conditions. With vessel availability and supply chain delays further impacting progress.
“Full operation is unlikely to be achieved until 2025. Given the notification that further vessels will be unavailable over the next few years.” It has become increasingly likely in the weeks that this will have a significant impact on the project’s profitability. “The company is working closely with its supply chain partners to improve current turbine installation rates. SSE issues a warning when updating its results for the last three months of 2023 to investors. The company said it was on track to deliver a lower-than-expected profit of 150 pence per share. To investors after renewable energy production was 15% lower than expected.
Doger Bank
Dogger Bank is a sandbar area in the southern North Sea. That straddles the waters of Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The relatively shallow depths of 60 to 200 feet make this location ideal for wind turbine installations. SSE Renewables is developing the project in three stages at Dogger Bank A, B and C. Located between 81 and 118 miles from the nearest UK coast. Dogger Bank A was anticipated to complete between late 2023 and early 2024, with Dogger Bank B to follow approximately one year later. The entire development is set to be completed in 2026. Once completed, it will be the world’s largest offshore Wind Farm. With a capacity of 3.6 gigawatts, enough to power 6 million homes. These are operated by his SSE partner Equinor and have an expected useful life of 35 years.
The shortage of ships for constructing wind power plants has become a global problem. Danish energy company Orsted’s surprise decision last November to cancel two offshore wind farms off the coast of New Jersey was largely due to significant delays in procuring the vessels needed to build the projects, company officials said, according to a recent report from Allianz Commercial, the global wind industry needs to spend $20 billion on 200 new wind installation vessels. It states: The increase in the size of wind turbines is perhaps the most significant change the industry has experienced in recent years. Over the past two decades, the height of wind turbines has increased.
Almost Quadrupled
It has almost quadrupled from about 70 m/230 ft to about 260 m/853 ft – almost three times as tall as the Statue of Liberty. “Wind turbine rotor diameter has increased five times over the past 30 years. As the size of turbines increases, their installation requires larger parts, machinery, and vessels, resulting in associated risks. “Most specialist vessels currently operate from Europe, and there is an immediate requirement to expand our facilities to support global operations. SSE formed through amalgamating energy companies from across the UK.” It currently supplies electricity to communities in the northern islands of Scotland, the Shetlands and Aberdeen, as well as customers in the south of England, including Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.
The company also owns high-voltage transmission lines in northern Scotland and the Scottish Islands and approximately ten gas-fired power stations in Scotland and England. The delay is the latest setback for the UK’s attempts to switch to a low-carbon electricity supply. Significant delays in the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant have impacted these plans. The plant, originally scheduled to start operating within the next three years, has now been delayed until 2030. There have been plans for up to 10 more nuclear power plants to come to fruition, but only one, Sizewell C, is currently under construction. Further delays in expanding the national electricity grid to accommodate the output of Wind Farm mean that many turbines will have to be shut down when the Wind Farm get too strong.
