The Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm is a 573 MW project located in the North Sea, around 27 km off the Norfolk coast and 28 km off Lincolnshire. Developed as part of the UK’s Round 2 offshore wind programme, it became fully operational in February 2018. The site covers approximately 75 km² and sits in relatively shallow waters ranging from 4 to 26 metres deep. Originally conceived by Centrica in the mid-2000s, Race Bank changed hands in 2013 when DONG Energy (now Ørsted) purchased it for £50 million, ensuring the project’s continuation after early subsidy setbacks.

Construction began in 2015 and involved a wide network of UK and European suppliers. The project features 91 Siemens 6 MW turbines with 154-metre rotors, giving Race Bank the ability to generate enough electricity to power over half a million homes. Offshore substations and high-voltage export cables were installed to transfer power to the onshore grid connection at Walpole in Norfolk. The foundations were supplied by Bilfinger Mars Offshore, with cables from JDR in Hartlepool and NKT in Germany, highlighting both local and international collaboration. During early seabed surveys, over 40 unexploded World War II bombs were discovered and safely cleared before cable installation — an unusual and memorable chapter in the project’s build phase.

Race Bank stands out for its scale, engineering precision, and environmental impact. Stretching across an area larger than the city of Norwich, its massive turbines are visible on the horizon from parts of the Lincolnshire coast. The project showcases how offshore wind in the UK has matured from early experimental stages into major infrastructure capable of delivering reliable, clean energy at scale. As one of Ørsted’s flagship UK sites, Race Bank remains a key symbol of Britain’s growing offshore wind expertise and its commitment to decarbonising electricity generation.