Ørsted has recently installed the 25th of Borssele 1 & 2’s 8MW wind turbines, it was also the 1.500th offshore wind turbine installed by Ørsted.
Before construction started at Borssele 1 & 2, Ørsted had already installed 6.8GW of offshore wind capacity worldwide, which provides green electricity for the equivalent of 6.6 million households annually.
Ørsted is currently constructing 3GW of offshore wind and plans to have a total of 15GW deployed in Denmark, Germany , the Netherlands, Taiwan, UK and the US by 2025.
“Offshore wind has matured at a rapid pace and can now be considered a cornerstone in the green transformation many places in the world. The 1,500 offshore wind turbines installed by Ørsted will contribute significantly to a greener future, but there’s no doubt that the potential of offshore wind reaches far beyond that. Today, offshore wind power is not only a clean, but also a cost-competitive alternative to power generated by burning of fossil fuels.”
Anders Lindberg, executive vice president, offshore EPC & QHSE.
In 2019, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that, even if limited only to windy regions within 60 km from the coast, offshore wind power has the capacity to produce up to 36.000 terawatt hours of renewable electricity per year globally. This would surpass the existing global demand for 23.000 terawatt-hours of electricity.
The IEA also predicted that offshore wind power could become Europe’s largest generating source of electricity by 2040. Europe will require 450GW of offshore wind power to achieve zero emissions by 2050 according to European Commission scenarios.
This is roughly twenty times the amount of offshore wind power installed today.