The East Anglia Array is a series of offshore wind farm projects in the UK, specifically the East Anglia Zone, an area in the southern North Sea belonging to the Crown Estate.
The East Anglia zone is the offshore zone licensed to East Anglia Offshore Wind (EAOW), a joint venture of ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall, for offshore wind farm developments. The Crown Estate awarded the license during the third licensing round in 2009. To date, Phase one of the offshore wind farm is fully operational under the partnership.
Where is the East Anglia Array?
The East Anglia One farm is located at the Southern North Sea near the east coast of England. The turbines of East Anglia One are 43 kilometers from the Suffolk coast. The rest of the planned projects in the East Anglia zones are 30 to 70 kilometers away from the nearest coastline.
The Lowestoft site office serves as the operations and maintenance base for the East Anglia project. It covers 300 square kilometers and employs about a hundred people on-site.
East Anglia Project
So far, technical offices, an operations base, a maintenance building, and a maritime coordination center were built in 2019 at Lowestoft Port to handle daily operations. The local economies will benefit from the 100 long-term jobs the project requires.
East Anglia ONE
The East Anglia One offshore wind farm project has been operational since its commissioning in 2020. It is the project’s first phase and started construction work in 2017. It is the largest wind farm of Iberdrola group, the parent company of ScottishPower Renewables.
East Anglia Hub
There are three planned East Anglia projects in the pipeline for three offshore wind farms after East Anglia One. The three proposed wind farms were consolidated into one project delivery to accelerate construction and lower production costs, now referred to as the East Anglia Hub. The proposed East Anglia hub covers
East Anglia Three
Since 2017, ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall obtained the planning consent for East Anglia Three. Meanwhile, as of March 2022, East Anglia Two and East Anglia One North have been given the green light by UK authorities to proceed with the wind farms’ construction, operation, and maintenance. These three planned developments have a proposed installed capacity of 3.1 GW, or enough to power 2.7 million homes when fully operational.
The East Anglia Three project is expected to start construction in June 2022. On the other hand, the East Anglia two and East Anglia One North will start pre-enabling works in August 2022 and construction in 2023. The complete operation of the entire hub finishes in 2026.
The East Anglia projects will contribute to the UK’s 2030 clean energy goals and benefit the local economy as an offshore wind farm in the UK.
When is the first power?
The first power of the East Anglia One was in September 2019, and by July 2020, commercial operations had started. Meanwhile, the East Anglia hub’s three other wind farm projects have development consent from UK authorities and are in the pre-works. The first power is yet to be determined.
Is this a fixed or floating foundation project?
The first phase employs a fixed foundation, using jacket-type foundations manufactured by various suppliers from Spain, UAE, and Ireland. For the second phase, East Anglia will use fixed foundations as well.
How much energy will the wind farm produce?
East Anglia Offshore wind will deliver 3.1 GW of renewable wind energy capacity via the East Anglia hub and the already operation of 714 MW of installed capacity at East Anglia one wind farm. The project will deliver almost 4 GW of installed capacity to the grid.
How many MW per phase?
East Anglia One project currently adds 714 MW of installed capacity to the national grid of the UK. Furthermore, the planned East Anglia hub will provide an additional 3.1 GW installed capacity to the East Anglia array. The first phase is powering 630,000 homes.
East Anglia Turbines
The project’s first phase used Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines. The turbine has robust technical features that can take advantage of the EA one offshore wind characteristics. Siemens Gamesa is more maintenance friendly with its innovative design on wear-prone components.
This turbine’s development is low weight, low dimension, and higher strength. The blades are cast in one piece and reinforced with fiberglass.
Who makes the turbines for the project?
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) is the first phase’s wind turbine supplier. The developer also has Siemens as the preferred supplier for the second phase using a 14 MW turbine.
Since 2020, there has been an external variable in play. GE sued SGRE in December 2020 on its patented low voltage ride technology, intending to derail the use of the technology on the East Anglia Three project.
Meanwhile, EAOW extends the maintenance contract with Siemens for the first phase to fifteen years and will thus continue to operate at Lowestoft’s maintenance and operations base.
What are the turbine’s capacity factors?
Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines have a capacity of 7 MW. In the second phase, the power that the developer aims for is much higher at 14 MW.
As per their last report, the project owner also asks the UK government to remove the stated gross output capacity indicated in the development consent order. According to the request, this aligns with the plan to “more closely align with the wider EA Hub developments.”
How many wind turbines per phase?
The first phase has 102 turbines. The next three phases have 242 turbines, with 57 in East Anglia One North, 64 in East Anglia Two, and 100 in East Anglia Three.
| Phase | Turbines | Total Power (MW) |
|---|---|---|
| East Anglia One | 102 | 714 |
| East Anglia One North | 57 | 798 |
| East Anglia Two | 64 | 896 |
| East Anglia Three | 100 | 1400 |
| East Anglia Array Total | 323 | 3808 |
How many turbines are in the project?
East Anglia will have 346 total wind turbines. 102 wind turbines are working currently, and 242 are for the remainder of the East Anglia hub project.