East Anglia One

East Anglia One is a 714-MW offshore wind farm that is the largest built by Iberdrola Group in its history. The company implemented the project via its subsidiary, Scottish Power Renewables.

The offshore wind farm is in the UK section of the North Sea. The wind farm began its operations in July 2020. The farm is the first in a multi-phase project at the East Anglia Zone that can reach 3.8 GW of wind power.

East Anglia One is part of the East Anglia Zone and delivered its first power in 2020. This wind farm covers 300 square kilometers and has 102 wind turbines rated at 7 megawatts each, for a total of 714-megawatt capacity factor. The East Anglia One offshore wind farm produces enough electricity to power 600,000 UK households.

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What is the ownership mix of East Anglia One?

East Anglia One Offshore Wind Farm is a joint venture which is 60%-owned by the Iberdrola Group. At the same time, Green Investment Group (GIG) of the Macquarie Group owns the remaining 40%.

GIG invested 40% in the project in 2020 and added its experience from its UK offshore wind farms. GIG has ownership of 5.7 GW of offshore wind farms in the UK.

As the UK has 11 GW of installed capacity in offshore wind farms in 2022, GIG’s role in the UK’s net-zero target in 2050 is significant.

Large and Historic Project for Iberdrola

The project marks a milestone as the company completed it as the largest project in its history amid the 2020 lockdowns.

The project covers 300 square kilometers or 40,000 football pitches. Each of the 102 Siemens Gamesa turbines has a 7 MW capacity.

Where is East Anglia One located?

The offshore wind farm is on the east coast of England at the North Sea. The distance from the Suffolk Coast of England is 43 km.

Map of the East Anglia Hub, showing the Great Yarmouth construction and marshalling base, the Lowestoft operations and maintenance base, and the four phases of the East Anglia Wind Farm

The operations and maintenance base of the farm, which houses its daily operations, warehouse, and technical offices, employs about a hundred people on site. The operations base is at Hamilton Dock, Lowestoft.

Aside from the maintenance building and quayside, the maintenance and operations base also houses a maritime coordination center.

How much electricity does the wind farm produce?

The electricity produced by the East Anglia One Project serves to provide clean energy to 600,000 households. Iberdrola built the 714-MW project as the first in a series of offshore projects in the East Anglia Zone.

The second and third phases are developments in the East Anglia Zone under the East Anglia Hub Complex.

In 2023 the construction of the following phases will begin. When all wind farms in the East Anglia Zone are complete, the power can reach 3.8 GW of installed capacity.

A Large Project on Schedule

The project schedule of East Anglia One was interrupted by the global pandemic in 2020. While 80% of the turbines were installed before the pandemic, 20% still had to be installed in 2020.

Despite the initial setback, the project went ahead and was finished right on schedule. In July 2020, the Iberdrola Group commissioned the project three months after the turbine installation was complete.

The project managers were prudent in their measures during the latter part of the installation. As a precaution, the teams carefully practiced health measures until the end of the installation.

The Specifications of the Turbines

Siemens Gamesa manufactured wind turbines have 7-MW of wind power capacity. The industrial strategy of Iberdrola for the wind farm was to produce parts that boosted the local economies during the construction.

Siemens Gamesa’s Hull factory built all the blades. At the same time, CSWind UK constructed some of the towers at Machrihanish, Scotland. Iberdrola outsourced the jacket foundations from Spain.

Associated Infrastructure of the Wind Farm

Two 220 kV export cables connect the wind farm to the grid. These export cables are 86 kilometers long, linking the wind farm to the onshore infrastructure. These two transmission cables are coming from the Andalucia II offshore marine substation.

The East Anglia Hub is made of the four East Anglia wind farm phases (One, One North, Two, and Three), the Great Yarmouth base, and the Lowestoft base. The Great Yarmouth base is home to construction and marshalling and employed about 3,000 people for the East Anglia One construction. The Lowestoft base is a new, state of the art base, for East Anglia operations and maintenance

After landfall, the six underground cables will connect to the Burstall Substation a further six 37 kilometers from shore. The national grid picks up the electricity at the Burstall Sub.

The technical features of the new substation include gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), transformer, Satcom, and shunt reactors. The Burstall Bubstation steps up the power from 220 kV to 400 kV for the national grid.

The Benefits to the Local Economy

The company hired more than 3,000 workers in the construction phase. The operations and maintenance base, meanwhile, employs 100 long-term skilled workers. Iberdrola also invested £25 million into the port of Great Yarmouth so it could house the operations base of the farm at Hamilton Dock, Lowestoft.

Cultural Contribution to the Community

Iberdrola group presented its archaeological findings discovered at the site in Suffolk during the construction phase in 2018. Experts have determined that the artifacts were from the Roman and Medieval periods, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Some wooden artifacts were 4,000 years old.

Earlier in 2012, a sunken and ‘uncharted’ World War 1 German U-31 submarine was found on the seabed. Though the sonar scanning found more than 60 wrecks after covering 6,000 square kilometers, the discovery at 30 meters in depth and 90 kilometers from shore was unexpected. The submarine had gone missing since 1915.

East Anglia Hub

The East Anglia Zone is a three-part offshore wind farm that follows the development of East Anglia One.

The East Anglia Array is an offshore wind farm with four phases. The first phase is East Anglia One. This is 43 kilometers from shore and is made of 102 wind turbines that can produce up to 714 megawatts of power combined. This is enough to power about 630,000 homes. The second phase is East Anglia One North, which is 36 kilometers from shore. This phase will generate up to 800 megawatts, enough to power about 710,000 homes. East Anglia Two is 31 kilometers from shore and will also generage about 800 megawatts to power 710,000 homes. Lastly, East Anglia Three will be 69 kilometers from shore and will generate up to 1,400 megawatts, and can power up to 1.2 million homes!

East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two were given a development consent order in March 2022 by the Planning Inspectorate from the National Infrastructure Planning. This decision means the Secretary of State is allowing the second and third phases to proceed.

The Hub’s remaining phases will have an installed capacity of as much as 3.1 GW with up to 263 turbines. The remaining parts of the project will power 2.7 million homes when it gets commissioned.