The first phase of the Hornsea One offshore windfarm has begun receiving contracts for difference payments, the Low Carbon Contracts Company has announced.
The North Sea installation will eventually feature 174 turbines with combined capacity of more than 1.2GW, making it the world’s largest offshore windfarm once completed in 2020.
The first turbine was installed in February and more than 50 have been installed so far. Operations commenced at the end of May.
The windfarm is jointly owned by Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners. The project was awarded a strike price of £140/MWh (2012 prices) as part of a one-off non-competitive allocation round in 2014.
Up to £65 million of annual subsidies will be granted in the third competitive auction round which kicked off last month.