New Offshore Wind Farm in Denmark is the "World's Largest"
Danish utility company, DONG Energy --in the past more known for its oil pursuits--brought its Horns Rev 2 offshore wind farm online this last week.
A 20MW facility with 91 turbines, situated 30km off the Danish coast, the energy company predicted the new Horns Rev 2 wind farm would generate 800GWh of power each year, providing enough zero-carbon electricity for 200,000 homes.
The development, which covers an area of 35 square kilometers to the west of the Jutland coast in the Danish part of the North Sea, consists of 2.5MW wind turbines from Siemens (NYSE:SI), each of which stands 114m tall and is positioned in water that is up to 17m deep.
With a price tag of $1 billion, Horns Rev isn’t cheap. But the project could offset some serious carbon emissions and help Europe achieve its goal of getting 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. If offshore wind projects continue, the European Wind Energy Association predicts that offshore turbines could produce as much as 10% of the EU’s power in the next 11 years.
While the Horns Rev 2 can now make the claim of being the world’s largest offshore wind farm, the auspicious title is fleeting. The Danish wind farm will soon be eclipsed by the Greater Gabbard farm that is set to come up soon in Britain. Of course the claim is not the real point of such a venture.
World leaders will meet in the Danish capital on December 7-19 to try to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. Denmark, which gets a fifth of its electricity production from wind, aims for an ambitious treaty in Copenhagen and hopes the conference will boost its environmental technology industry.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen claimed enormous potential for "green development" as he spoke to guests gathered for the opening ceremony, and added: "You need cases like this to prove - not only to political leaders but also to their voters and inhabitants - that it is possible to build a bridge between the climate change agenda and bringing prosperity to people."
Harry Tournemille has been covering renewable energy and cleantech sectors for Energy Boom for almost two years. With a focus on solar, wave, and biofuel energies, Harry looks to find real-life applications for the host of information being put out on a daily basis.
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