The World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Is Looking To Grow Even Further

Dogger Bank Wind Farm, set to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, could soon have another growth spurt. The owners of the giant North Sea wind farm have submitted plans to kick off another phase of development in a push that could provide a further 2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity to the project.

Located off the east coast of England, the 3.6GW wind farm is currently under construction in the three build-out phases: Dogger Bank A, B, and C. The project won’t be completed for a few years, although Dogger Bank A started pumping clean energy in October 2023, marking a major milestone for the colossus.

Now, its owners – Britain’s SSE Renewables and Norway’s Equinor – have submitted a Scoping Report to build a fourth array: Dogger Bank D.

The proposed Dogger Bank D will effectively be an extension on the east side of Dogger Bank C, situated around 210 kilometers (130 miles) off the northeast coast of England. It's planned to hook up to a new 400-kilovolt substation back on the mainland in Yorkshire, where it will be used to power thousands of homes and more.

To get the go-ahead, they’ll have to reach an agreement with The Crown Estate, who manage the land and seabed owned by the British monarch around England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They also have to pass numerous environmental checks, plus face a public consultation on the proposals in Autumn 2024.

"The Scoping Report is an important milestone for Dogger Bank D and is a key part of the development of an offshore wind farm. The report lays out the scope of the project proposals and identifies key environmental factors," Rob Cussons, Project Director for Dogger Bank D at SSE Renewables, said in a statement .

Even before this latest addition was mentioned, Dogger Bank Wind Farm was pitted to be “the world’s biggest wind farm.” Dogger Bank A, B, and C is set to have 277 wind turbines and, once operational, would be more than two and a half times the size of the largest offshore wind farm currently in operation. According to the latest Scoping Report , Dogger Bank could add a maximum of 122 turbines to that total.

The site features turbines with a height of 260 meters (853 feet) and blades that are 107 meters (351 feet) long – which is pretty huge, although not quite as big as the turbines off the coast of China’s Fujian Province, which have blades measuring 123 meters (403 feet) long.

As the world attempts to wean itself off fossil fuels, huge wind farms have sprouted up across many parts of the world in recent years.

The largest in the US is the Alta Wind Energy Center in the windswept Tehachapi Pass of California, boasting a capacity of about 1.55GW. However, the efforts of the US and Britain are dwarfed by one in China – the Gansu Wind Farm Project or Jiuquan Wind Power Base on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert – that has a planned capacity of 20GW.