The project will install 10,000 MW of fixed and floating wind turbines in the North Atlantic connected to the UK with submarine power transmission cables.

May 26, 2021

Hecate Independent Power (HIP) has initiated its HIP Atlantic wind power project. This involves installing 10,000 MW of fixed and floating wind turbines in the North Atlantic connected to the UK by long-length, high-capacity, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine power transmission cables. A specially designed, USD 277-million complex at a port in northeast England will manufacture the cables.

It is estimated that the total project will cost around USD 30 billion. It has submitted four connection applications with National Grid Co. for an initial 4,000 MW of grid connections to the UK’s 400-kV electricity transmission system across four connection sites. Each wind farm or pod will be at a different location in the North Atlantic, and each will comprise 1,000 MW of wind turbines with a dedicated cable linked to the UK.

All the wind pods will be under the UK electricity system operator making this Britain’s first ‘captive’ wind farm in overseas territorial waters. HIP Atlantic is aiming to have 2,000 MW of generation capacity from pods off the southern and eastern coasts of Iceland, commissioned in early 2025.

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But the HIP Atlantic HVDC transmission cables will not connect to the Icelandic transmission system. In addition, the planned pods in the North Atlantic will all be in a different meteorological area from current North Sea and Irish Sea wind farms, allowing the UK grid system to receive renewable electricity at times when existing UK wind farms are becalmed.

The project could create more long-term jobs across the UK than previous wind farms connected to the National Grid, with the initial 2,000 MW capacity alone resulting in about 15,000 new positions. Around 500 new jobs are expected to be created in southern and eastern Iceland for the 2,000 MW pilot phase.

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Separately, HIP Atlantic is working on a new HVDC cable manufacturing facility with an associated deepwater berth for loading cable lay vessels more than 275 m (902 ft) long. It is also in talks with a group of ship owners to modify existing vessels to lay the long lengths of HVDC cable required to connect wind turbine capacity to the UK at connection points on the 400-kV transmission system.