ABB has been selected by energy companies SSE Renewables of the UK and Equinor of Norway to supply its high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) Light converter systems to connect the world’s largest offshore wind farms — in the Dogger Bank region of the North Sea — to the UK transmission network.

ABB announced a partnership with Aibel in 2016 on the design, engineering and optimisation of offshore wind connections; the latter will deliver two HVDC offshore converter platforms.

Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s Power Grids business (www.new.abb.com), said: “Winning the contracts from SSE Renewables and Equinor for the landmark Dogger Bank project underscores ABB’s innovative offshore-wind technology and expertise.

"It also highlights the success of ABB Power Grids’ customer partnerships, both on design optimisation and on the business model level.

"With the Dogger Bank project, we are helping to make offshore wind competitive and thus contributing to a stronger, smarter and greener grid.”

The Dogger Bank development consists of three wind-farm projects — Creyke Beck A and B, and Teesside A.

It will significantly contribute towards the UK Government’s goal of sourcing up to a third of its electricity from offshore wind by 2030. ABB has been awarded contracts for Creyke Beck A and Creyke Beck B.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global offshore wind capacity may increase 15-fold and attract around $1 trillion of cumulative investment by 2040.

"This is driven by ‘increased competitiveness, supportive government policies and some remarkable technological progress’.