Offshore Wind Farm East Anglia ONE Fully Operational

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the British East Anglia ONE offshore windfarm has been completed by ScottishPower Renewables and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG). Around 20% of the turbine installation and around half the turbine connection work was completed during lockdown, with ScottishPower Renewables and its project partners transforming how they worked to get the job done. This included switching to a higher number of smaller vessels, creating crew ‘households’ who lived and worked together at all times, introducing new welfare protocols and minimising crew changes.

This approach led to the completion in schedule, meaning also that almost 3,500 jobs were sustained during the construction phase, which began in 2017, while 100 long-term skilled jobs have been created at the operations and maintenance base in Lowestoft.

East Anglia ONE will now play a major part in contributing to the UK’s target of meeting Net Zero by 2050, producing enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of more than 630,000 homes.

Charlie Jordan, East Anglia ONE Project Director at ScottishPower Renewables, said: “The final commissioning of East Anglia ONE is an incredible milestone for us and our project partners, as well as our wider stakeholders, the East Anglian region and the whole of the UK. And it comes at a crucial time as the UK takes it first steps towards a green economic recovery. Reaching this point was always going to be an extremely important moment for us – heralding the start of full production of green energy from a major site that will play a real part in the UK’s path to Net Zero. What has made it even more incredible is the determination and tenacity of our team, who have worked tirelessly to deliver this significant technical project amidst an unprecedented pandemic, which none of us could have planned for. This was also the first time we have worked with Green Investment Group, and I would like to thank them for their support.

Andrew Elmes, East Anglia ONE Senior Project Manager at Siemens Gamesa, added: “The team reacted superbly to the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing East Anglia ONE from being derailed by the unprecedented situation. Safety issues to be managed in a critical period included: complete vessel, accommodation, and crew reorganisations; quarantine events, social distancing, suspect cases and testing onsite. We are extremely proud to have done so while achieving several key customer - and Siemens Gamesa - business milestones, despite the uncertainty. We’ve now commissioned the entire offshore wind power project, making real our commitment to providing clean energy for generations to come.”