Offshore Wind

East Anglia ONE

16 July 2021

In August 2019, GIG acquired a 40% stake in the 714 MW East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm in our first transaction with Iberdrola, adding to our extensive UK offshore wind portfolio.

Key data

714 MW

EA1 is one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world

102

Siemens Gamesa 7 MW turbines covering an area of c. 300 km2 in the North Sea

630,000 homes

The project will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of almost 630,000 British homes

Opportunity

Located in the North Sea about 43 km off the coast of Suffolk, EA1 had been in development by Iberdrola’s ScottishPower Renewables for over 9 years before GIG began discussions to partner on the delivery of EA1.

EA1 is one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world and is a key project in the UK progressing towards Net Zero by 2050 and reaching the UK’s target of 40 GW of Offshore Wind by 2030¹.

This project further strengthened GIG’s commitment to the UK offshore wind sector and brings the total capacity of UK offshore wind supported by GIG to over 5.7 GW, across 14 projects² - equivalent to almost 50% of the total UK offshore wind capacity in operations or construction³.

In 2020, GIG brought an additional investor into its holding company owner of 40% of EA1.

Image courtesy of ScottishPower Renewables

Actions

In partnering with Iberdrola on the delivery of EA1, we brought our extensive experience and substantial knowledge of the UK offshore wind sector to the project.

We structured innovative financial and risk management solutions to support our project investment and mitigate macro risks, and negotiated several key transaction contracts with SPR and the Iberdrola Group prior to joining in August 2019.

The EA1 construction continued throughout a challenging 2020, with all turbines successfully commissioned by July 2020 despite the COVID challenge.

Image courtesy of ScottishPower Renewables
Video was produced in 2019

"East Anglia ONE is a world class development delivering a huge range of benefits to communities across the UK, and I’m delighted that GIG is partnering with ScottishPower Renewables and the Iberdrola group on the project.

The UK continues to be a world leader in offshore wind, and I’m incredibly proud of the pioneering role GIG has played in the creation of that market. We’re committed to driving the UK’s energy transition, establishing offshore wind as the backbone of the UK’s new low-carbon energy system."

Edward Northam
Head of Green Investment Group, Europe

Impact

The EA1 project has supported thousands of jobs across the offshore wind supply chain. All 306 glass fibre turbine blades were manufactured by Siemens Gamesa at its state-of-the-art factory in Hull and a number of the 90-meter-high towers were produced by CSWind UK in Machrihanish, Scotland.

714 MW EA1 generates enough electricity to power over 630,000 UK homes, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 979 kt CO₂e per year. That is the equivalent of removing over 323,763 cars from the road.⁴

East Anglia One Green Impact Report

31 August 2019

East Anglia ONE Wind Farm Green Impact Report

PDF 614 KB

Image courtesy of ScottishPower Renewables

Footnotes

1. New plans to make UK world leader in green energy
2. Combining historic activity by GIB, GIG and Macquarie Group
3. Offshore wind capacity in operations and under construction - RenewableUK’s UK Wind Energy Database

4 Find out how we calculate our numbers here.

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