Orsted A/S unveiled the world’s largest offshore wind farm, an 87-turbine complex in the Irish Sea covering an area more than double the size of Manhattan.
The Walney Extension off the coast of northwest England has a generating capacity of 659 megawatts and is capable of powering 590,000 homes, according to Danish company Orsted, the world’s biggest developer of offshore wind farms.
Largest Offshore Global Wind Farms by Capacity
Source: Renewables U.K.
At 145 square kilometers, Walney overtakes another U.K. offshore wind farm, London Array, as the world’s largest. It uses less than half the number of turbines over a larger area to generate more power.
Orsted sold 50 percent of Walney to a group of Danish pension funds in November 2017. The U.K. currently operates 1,837 offshore wind turbines with an operational capacity of 7.1 gigawatts, according to trade association Renewable U.K.