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Siemens Gamesa Manufactures First Rotor Blade For Giant British Offshore Wind Farm Sofia

Swindon, UK - With the closure of the UK's last coal-fired power station earlier this week and the end of UK coal-fired power generation, the expansion of offshore wind energy in the UK continues to gain momentum. An important milestone has now been reached at RWE's Sofia offshore wind farm with the manufacture of the first British-made rotor blade.

The energy company RWE has presented the first rotor blade produced at the British Siemens Gamesa plant in Hull. Rotor blades of this type are to be installed on a total of 100 offshore wind turbines at RWE's Sofia offshore wind farm. This marks an important milestone in the further realisation of the flagship project. Commissioning of the Sofia offshore wind energy project is planned for 2026.

First rotor blade for Sofia offshore wind farm officially presented

RWE has now officially unveiled the first rotor blade manufactured at the Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull with a total length of 108 metres in the presence of Tom Glover, Country Chair of RWE UK, Darren Davidson, Vice President Siemens Energy UK&I and Siemens Gamesa UK, and Melanie Onn, Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Siemens Gamesa's rotor blade factory in Hull is the largest manufacturing facility of its kind in the UK. The facility has been expanded to keep pace with the rapid growth of the offshore wind sector.

Construction work at sea for the RWE Sofia offshore wind farm began in autumn 2023. The wind farm is located on the Dogger Bank, 195 kilometres off the north-east coast of the UK. A total of 100 Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD wind turbines with a capacity of 14 MW each will be installed.

Recyclable rotor blades will be used in 44 of the 100 offshore turbines. When the Sofia offshore wind farm with a capacity of 1,400 MW (1.4 GW) is fully operational, it will be able to generate as much wind power as around 1.2 million British households consume per year, according to RWE. Siemens Gamesa will manufacture, install and commission all 100 SG 14-222 DD turbines. Each turbine will be 252 metres high and the 108-metre-long rotor blades will achieve a rotor diameter of 222 metres. Completion of the Sofia offshore wind farm is scheduled for the end of 2026.

"The potential for job creation within the renewable energy supply chain is enormous. Not just at companies like Siemens Energy, which manufactures the rotor blades for Sofia at its blade factory here in the UK, but across the entire supply chain. Sofia is a significant development for RWE in the UK and we are delighted to be able to maximise this investment to support important local coastal communities," said Tom Glover, Country President of RWE UK.

"We are driving the energy transition at our offshore wind blade factory in Hull. We now employ over 1,300 people there, having taken on more than 600 new employees in the last 12 months. We are proud to be a key supplier to RWE for a number of projects in the UK, including the manufacture of the blades for Sofia. It's great to get this project underway and unveil the first blade," added Darren Davidson, Vice President of Siemens Energy UK&I.

Dogger Bank: Huge British offshore complex with up to 10,000 MW of wind power capacity to be built

The Sofia offshore wind farm is part of a huge offshore wind farm complex being built in the Dogger Bank area. The huge sandbank lies in the middle of the central to southern North Sea with relatively shallow water depths of between 18 and 63 metres.

Once all projects have been completed, the total output of the offshore wind turbines is expected to be 10,000 MW (10 GW) according to the current planning status of the companies involved. In addition to the RWE Sofia project with a capacity of 1,400 MW, the Dogger Bank Complex A-C (3,600 MW), which is being realised in three 1,200 MW sections by a joint venture between Equinor and SSE Renewables, is also under construction. The two companies are also planning the Dogger Bank D offshore project with a current capacity of 2,000 MW. Furthermore, RWE is developing the two Dogger Bank South projects in the region together with Masdar, which together are expected to have a capacity of around 3,000 MW.

The state of offshore wind energy in the UK

According to the government's plans, the UK wants to achieve net zero emissions in all sectors of the British economy by 2050. The country is focussing on a massive expansion of renewable energies, particularly offshore wind energy.

The next expansion targets in the UK relate to the year 2030, by which time, for example, UK offshore wind energy is to be expanded to a capacity of up to 50 GW (50,000 MW), including 5 GW (5,000 MW) of floating offshore wind turbines. At the end of 2023, offshore wind turbines with a capacity of almost 15,000 MW were in operation in the UK.



Source: IWR Online, 05 Oct 2024