Iberdrola has begun construction in the U.K. of the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm, which will have a capacity of 1,400 MW – enough to supply 1.3 million homes with clean energy, more than the populations of Liverpool and Glasgow combined.
This new facility, located off the coast of Norfolk, near the London metropolitan area, will form part of the East Anglia Hub macro-complex, together with the future East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two developments. This hub is the Iberdrola group’s largest initiative for this technology in the world and will involve an investment of £6.5 billion (around €7.7 billion) for the installation of 3,000 MW, which represents 6% of the 50 GW offshore wind energy target set by the U.K. government for 2030.
The new farm is in addition to the one already operated by the company through its subsidiary ScottishPower in the same area, called East Anglia One, with 714 MW, capable of producing renewable energy for 630,000 British homes.
Construction work on this plant, which is expected to start production in 2025, has begun on the ground. The initial phase will focus on the installation in the county of Suffolk, in collaboration with Siemens, of the onshore substation that will connect the park to the National Grid electricity grid and the cable route, awarded to NKT.
East Anglia Three will cover an area of up to 305 square kilometers and will require the installation of more than a hundred new generation wind turbines, which will be up to 247 meters high, the equivalent of two and a half times the size of Big Ben (96 meters).
This major electricity infrastructure will also include four offshore substations, an offshore platform to house the operations accommodation and four submarine cables for exporting the energy produced by the wind farm, located 69 kilometers offshore, to the coast.
The construction of the East Anglia hub will provide a significant boost to the U.K. and European offshore wind supply chain and will create up to 7,000 jobs.
East Anglia Three will become the company’s seventh offshore wind farm in operation. The group has already commissioned West of Duddon Sands (195 MW) in the Irish Sea, Wikinger (350 MW) in German waters of the Baltic Sea and East Anglia ONE.
