When complete, the Hornsea 3 project will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm and will provide electricity to more than 3 million UK homes.
DNV has successfully completed Vendors’ Technical Due Diligence on Ørsted’s Hornsea 3. The Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, located 160 km off the Yorkshire coast and 120 km off the Norfolk coast, will feature 197 Siemens Gamesa SG DD-236 wind turbines and shall be the world’s single largest offshore wind farm when construction is completed.
Working in close collaboration with Ørsted, DNV conducted an independent energy yield assessment and undertook a detailed technical due diligence study on all aspects of the offshore wind farm and the associated offshore transmission assets, which use state of the art HVDC technology.
Drawing on DNV's extensive offshore wind experience, this work identified the key technical and commercial aspects of the project for consideration by the multiple financial institutions which supported the 50% ownership stake divestment to the successful buyer, Apollo Funds.
By 2050, offshore wind is set to become the UK's main power source, supplying two-thirds of the nation's grid electricity. DNV’s latest UK Energy Transition Outlook forecasts that capacity will reach 76 GW by then, fuelled by offshore wind’s ability to generate more consistent power than onshore sites. We are already seeing a rapid shift: capacity is expected to nearly double from 15 GW today to 28 GW by 2030.
Hari Vamadevan, Senior Vice President, and Regional Director UK & Ireland of Energy Systems at DNV, said: 'Successfully advising on the divestment of a stake in Hornsea 3 demonstrates how critical independent technical assurance is for unlocking the capital required for the UK's energy transition. Our latest UK forecast shows that projects of this scale are essential: we need to install new offshore wind capacity at more than twice the historical rate to meet the 2030 target and support the massive electrification of transport and heating demand.
'This project exemplifies the complex technical and financial ecosystem that must work in unison. Our multidisciplinary due diligence - from energy yield assessment to the review of pioneering HVDC transmission assets - provided the rigorous analysis needed to give Ørsted and its financial partners the confidence to advance a project that will be a cornerstone of the UK’s future clean power system.'
Source: DNV
