The Port of Tyne in Northeast England was named by Equinor and SSE as the long-term support base for the world’s largest offshore wind farm project, the 3.6GW Dogger Bank in the UK North Sea.

The Norwegian oil & gas group and UK utility – developing the wind farm under a 50-50 joint venture – will build a multi-million operations and maintenance base at the port, near the city of Newcastle, to serve Dogger Bank through its 25-year-plus lifespan.

The O&M base will create 200 direct jobs “as well as opportunities for companies at all levels of the supply chain” said the developers.

The decision is a big boost for one of the UK’s historic industrial centres that has fallen on tough times, and means the economic spoils of the nation’s world-leading North Sea offshore wind build are moving further north along its east coast.

Port towns further south such as Grimsby, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth have already benefited from investment to support previous massive offshore wind projects.

Stephen Bull, Equinor’s senior vice president for North Sea new energy solutions, said: “The North East has a strong industrial heritage and a supply area that stretches north and south of the River Tyne.

“With a strong low-carbon vision for the future; as well as targets to become net zero in its own operations by 2030 the Port of Tyne is clearly well set up to attract future investments which we hope will complement our activities.”

The £9bn ($11bn) Dogger Bank will be built in three 1.2GW phases using 12MW Haliade-X turbines from GE Renewable Energy – the world’s largest commercially available machines.

Once fully operational by 2026 Dogger Bank, located in water depths of 20-35 metres some 130km from shore, will supply power to over 4.5 million homes annually, equivalent to around 5% of the country's estimated electricity generation.

Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive of industry group RenewableUK, said: “As we look to the future, renewables offer us a way to rebuild our economy after the Coronavirus pandemic, not just by developing projects here but by exporting our valuable expertise around the world.

“We can consolidate our global lead in offshore wind and in developing innovative technologies like floating wind, marine power and renewable hydrogen, as well as restarting the development of new onshore wind projects.”

Wind

Equinor and SSE name UK base for world's largest offshore wind farm Dogger Bank