Hornsea Onshore Substation

Peter Marshall Steel Stairs supplied galvanised steel mesh cladding as part of a new onshore substation in Hornsea.

Balfour Beatty has been awarded a multi-million pound project to construct a high voltage onshore substation as part of the new Hornsea offshore wind farm. The facility will enable the transfer of electricity from the Hornsea offshore wind farm, to the existing National Grid substation.

Construction on the project includes the core buildings, electricity equipment, voltage and communication cables as well as roads, paths, drainage and landscaping. The contract is expected to take two and a half years to complete. As part of the project, Peter Marshall Steel Stairs provided and installed the galvanised steel mesh cladding.

The Hornsea Project is a significant offshore wind farm and is a continued commitment of the UK to green energy. The wind farm zone covers an area of 4,735 square kilometres, and it will be able to generate more than 4GW of renewable energy. This will account for approximately 4% of the UK’s overall power generation capacity.

The electrical output from the wind farm for the transmission cable will make landfall at Horseshoe Point, near North Cotes, Lincolnshire. The total length of the offshore transmission subsea cables will be 150km, whereas the onshore transmission cable will be 40km long.

When combined, Hornsea 1 and Hornsea 2 will be capable of powering 2.3 million homes in the UK. The 165 wind turbines will make Hornsea the world’s largest operating wind farm. Further development projects for a Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 are also being considered and going through the planning process. The projects would make a significant contribution to the UK government’s target of achieving net-zero by 2050.

Climate change is one of the biggest threads facing the world today. An investment in renewable energy on a large scale would make the UK a world leader in offshore wind.