Wind Energy – Largest OWF
Stockholm-based wind farm and solar developer OX2 has applied for a permit to build a massive 5.5 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.
Ørsted’s Hornsea in the North Sea has 7.5 GW of total capacity, but it’s made up of four separate offshore wind farms. The Swedish offshore wind farm, which will be called Aurora, will be bigger than the 4.8 GW Dogger Bank, which is off the Yorkshire coast in the UK and due to be completed in 2026.
Aurora will be sited in the Swedish Economic Zone, about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the island of Gotland and 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the island of Öland.
The $18 billion offshore wind farm will feature up to 370 wind turbines with a maximum height of 370 meters (1,213 feet). For perspective, the Empire State Building is 381 meters, or 1,250 feet tall.
Aurora’s electricity production will be about 24 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year. That’s enough power for around 5 million households, or about 17% of the total electricity consumption in Sweden.
The wind farm’s first phase of construction is expected to begin in 2028. Aurora is expected to start producing energy in 2030.
