Denmark cuts ribbon on world's largest offshore wind farm

European energy giant Dong Energy has today officially opened the world's largest offshore wind farm, a 20MW facility with 91 turbines, situated 30km off the Danish coast.

The Danish energy company predicted the new Horns Rev 2 wind farm would generate 800GWh of power each year, providing enough zero-carbon electricity for 200,000 homes.

The development, which covers an area of 35 square kilometres to the west of the Jutland coast in the Danish part of the North Sea, consists of 2.5MW wind turbines from Siemens, each of which stands 114m tall and is positioned in water that is up to 17m deep.

Speaking at an inauguration ceremony on the accommodation platform that has been built adjacent to the wind farm, Dong Energy chairman Fritz H Schur said that the opening of the new €470m (£419m) facility marked a milestone in the company's strategy to reposition itself as a provider of renewable energy.

He added that it would also help to bolster the company's competitiveness in the booming European market for offshore wind.

"In many ways, the establishment of Horns Rev 2 is a final test piece for Dong Energy," he said. "Half of the world's current offshore wind power capacity was constructed by us. This inauguration of the world's largest offshore wind farm underlines that Dong Energy is among the frontrunners in the field."

Indeed, Horns Rev 2's status as the world's largest offshore wind farm is likely to prove shortlived, with Dong Energy also involved in the London Array consortium to build a 1GW offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was also attended by Danish Crown Prince Frederik and prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, comes just days after a major report from the European Wind Energy Association predicted that all the offshore wind farms currently in the planning pipeline could provide up to a tenth of the EU's electricity.