Danish firm Dong Energy has revealed that it will be setting up the world’s largest offshore wind farm repair and maintenance centre in the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby.
Dong already has a facility built on the Royal Dock in Grimsby, and intends to invest up to £20 million in the proposed expansion in the area. The new maintenance hub will, according to Dong, “support up to 250 direct jobs”.
The new expansion will serve to support the growth and stability of Dong’s fleet, focusing at first on three offshore farms – Westermost Rough (which is currently operational) and Race Bank and Hornsea Project One, which are both currently under construction.
Hornsea One, when built, will have a generation capacity of around 1.2GW. This will be surpassed by Hornsea Two which was recently given the official green light and will, once built, be the largest offshore wind farm in the world, with some 300 turbines generating 1.8GW of power, enough to provide energy for 1.6 million homes.
The Grimsby maintenance hub will include the facility to provide 24 hour servicing for all of the offshore farms involved, both by ship and by helicopter. This will include two brand new ships designed by Rolls Royce each with a 60 person crew.
Dong said, in a statement, that the decision to go ahead with this new facility in Grimsby represents an important step for the offshore wind industry, both as a means of keeping it functional and as a gesture of confidence.
Dong’s chairman, Brent Cheshire, said: “This new operational hub in Grimsby will be a game-changing industry first, raising the bar for the way we serve offshore wind farms. It will generate direct and indirect job opportunities in the Humber region, as well as opportunities for the local supply chain.
“It represents a massive vote of confidence to the UK offshore wind industry and confirms our commitment to the Humber region where by 2019 we expect to have invested around £6bn.”
Not everyone is happy with the facility though. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds raised issues with the new facility based on its location which, they argue, is directly in the flight path of multiple species of protected birds and, as such, presents an “unacceptable risk to nature”.
