With a hub height of 110-120 metres and a rotor diameter of 167 metres, the SeaAngel is among the biggest beasts heading offshore, alongside Samsung’s 7MW S-171-7.0 (now in commissioning in the shallows off Scotland) and Vestas’ 8MW V164 (just erected for testing onshore in Denmark).

But under the bonnet, the SeaAngel is a breed apart. Where other manufacturers have opted for either direct-drive or medium-stage geared transmission systems powering permanent-magnet generators, the SeaAngel is being built around cutting-edge hydraulics technology — known at Mitsubishi as digital displacement transmission (DDT) — to turn an off-the-shelf brushless synchronous generator.

Hydraulic