Horns Rev is a shallow sandy reef of glacial deposits in the eastern North Sea, about off the westernmost point of Denmark, Blåvands Huk.Horns Rev, GEUS News nr 4, 2003. Accessed March 2010. For many years Horns Rev was marked by a lightship, though that has now been replaced by light buoys. The reef is the site of the Horns Rev Offshore Wind Farm.Horns Rev Wind Farm , Horns Rev web site. Accessed 11 March 2010.Horns Revolution , Modern Power Systems 5 October 2002. Accessed 11 March 2010.

Horns Rev offshore wind farm

At Horns Rev the Danish Energy company Elsam (now Ørsted) built the first offshore wind farm in the North Sea. When the first phase was inaugurated in 2002, Horns Rev wind farm was the first large scale offshore wind farm in the world at 160 MW, four times larger than the previous largest offshore wind farm in the world, the Middelgrunden at 40MW.Morgan, Colin. Offshore Wind – State of the Art page 24 Garrad Hassan, 20 October 2004. Accessed 19 November 2010.Larsen, Jens H. The World's largest off-shore windfarm, Middelgrunden 40MW Copenhagen Environment and Energy Office (CEEO), 2001. Accessed 19 November 2010.

A total of 80 Vestas V80-2.0 MW units, capable of producing 160 MW, were installed by the Danish offshore wind farms services provider A2SEA in 2002 with the last turbine coming into operation on 11 December 2002. It receives a guaranteed price of 0.453 DKK/kWh for the first 42,000 hours, paid by electricity consumers."Fremskrivning af PSO-udgifter" page 4. Danish Energy Agency, 19 May 2014. Accessed 17 January 2015. Since 2005, the wind farm has been owned and operated by Vattenfall. It cost DKK2bn. A radar has shown details of the wind patterns, improving local short-term forecasting.Pinson, Pierre. Radar@Sea PossPOW: Possible Power of Offshore Wind power plants www.posspow.vindenergi.dtu.dk, Technical University of Denmark

Turbines are laid out as an oblique rectangle of 5 km x 3.8 km (8 horizontal and 10 vertical rows). The distance between turbines is 560 m in both directions.

The main method of transport to the first wind park is an adapted Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter when winds are less than 19 m/s. Hoisting the workers to and from a small platform on each turbine allows access to the park regardless of sea conditions which would otherwise prevent sailing in the area for a large part of the year.

Vattenfall can change a gearbox in a day, and the farm has an availability of 96-97%. Two turbines are burnt out, and are uneconomic to replace with less than 10 years left.

In April 2012, most of the Danish Folketing (parliament) agreed to send out tenders in 2013 for a 400 MW wind farm at Horns Rev called Horns Rev 3, and a 600 MW at Kriegers Flak in the Baltic Sea, both likely receiving 90 øre/kWh for the first 50,000 hours. This was expected to raise wind power in Denmark above the current 39% of annual electricity production,Rasmussen, Jesper Nørskov. "Vindmøller slog rekord i 2014 " Energinet.dk, 6 January 2015. Accessed 6 January 2015. which includes the 400 MW Anholt Offshore Wind Farm.Dyrskjøt, Mette. "Two giant offshore wind park tenders in 2013" Dagbladet Børsen, 23 April 2012. Accessed 23 April 2012."Energinet kicks off 1GW offshore work" reNews, 23 April 2012. Accessed 23 April 2012."Danish Officials Seek Experienced Bidders" OffshoreWind, 11 October 2013. Accessed 12 October 2013."Draft for prequalification criteria for the tender of Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm " Danish Energy Agency, 10 October 2013. Accessed 12 October 2013. Some of the area is an old minefield from World War Two.Wittrup, Sanne. "70 tyske miner kan forsinke kommende havmøllepark " Ingeniøren, 23 February 2015. Accessed 23 February 2015. Four bidders were qualified for the tender.Wittrup, Sanne. "Horns Rev 3 er en godbid " Ingeniøren, 16 February 2015. Accessed 12 March 2015.

Vattenfall won the tender in February 2015, at a price of 77 øre/kWh, well below the 105 øre at Anholt.Wittrup, Sanne. "Svenske Vattenfall skal bygge Danmarks næste havmøllepark " Ingeniøren, 26 February 2015. Accessed 26 February 2015. Vattenfall states that they bid unaggressively against strong competition without sacrificing margins.Nielsen, Michael Korsgaard. "Vattenfall: Vi har ikke presset indtjeningen" Berlingske, 12 March 2015. The price reduction contributes to a smaller "green subsidy" (PSO) over the next years.Wittrup, Sanne. "Regnefejl, billig vind og sene kystmøller sænker prisen på grøn omstilling " Ingeniøren, 27 March 2015. Accessed 27 March 2015.PSO prediction www.ens.dk A total of 49 Vestas V164-8.3 MW units, capable of producing 406.7 MW, will be installed."Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm " Vattenfall, 27 June 2016. Accessed 29 October 2016. Three transformers were installed in July 2016.

Findings released from an eight-year study about offshore wind farms in Denmark show that the projects "operate in harmony with the surrounding environment". The 2006 report confirms that both the Horns Rev and Nysted offshore wind farms will double in size in the coming years.

See also

References

External links Horns Rev Newsletter LORC – Horns Rev 1 Datasheet Wind Farm Wake: The Horns Rev Photo Case (2012), Meteorological Explanation of Wake Clouds at Horns Rev Wind Farm (2010) Official videos: A wind power station in open sea, Laying cables, Helicopter transfer, Helicopter rescue exercise