Final monopile marks East Anglia Three milestone as 1.4GW project enters turbine phase
East Anglia Three's foundation completion signals the 1.4GW build remains on track for commissioning, adding to a busy North Sea installation calendar.
The final monopile for the 1.4GW East Anglia Three offshore wind farm slid into the seabed off the Suffolk coast, closing out all 95 foundations for the £4 billion project in a campaign that began in April 2025.6
That matters for the UK's offshore wind pipeline because East Anglia Three is currently the largest project under construction in British waters, and its foundation phase finishing roughly on schedule keeps intact the developer's timeline for turbine installation and grid connection. Each of the monopiles weighs between 1,200 and 1,800 tonnes, a reminder of the logistical chain that has to hold together for the project to reach first power.6
The milestone lands in a European installation season that is running full tilt. RWE has already stood up the first turbine at Nordseecluster A, the 660MW first phase of its 1.6GW German North Sea project, with all 44 Vestas units expected to be in position before the season closes.1
Nordseecluster A's turbines are rated at up to 15MW each, with a 145m hub height and 115m rotor blades, making it one of the largest offshore builds currently under way in Germany. That first phase is slated to connect to the grid in early 2027, with the 900MW Nordseecluster B phase scheduled to follow, its foundation work due to begin next year and turbine installation planned for 2028.1
The German project has already locked in a slice of its offtake. Amazon signed a 110MW power purchase agreement tied to Nordseecluster B earlier this year; RWE frames the output as supply for industrial decarbonisation and customised energy contracts for technology companies.1
The construction cycle matters well beyond the projects themselves. Steel demand for monopiles, installation vessel availability and grid connection slots are all being allocated now for projects that will not produce power until the late 2020s, and any slippage in the current batch of builds compresses the timeline for the next wave.6,1
Developers are also staffing up for the operations phase earlier than in previous cycles. Inch Cape, the offshore wind farm off the Angus coast, opened recruitment for its first ten operational roles in July, covering HSE, contracts and commercial, control room and engineering management positions.4
There is a less encouraging side to the picture in North Dakota, where a host community has soured on wind development despite its economic benefits; one resident described the installation as having "fundamentally changed the agricultural character" of Wishek, where farming has sustained generations.7
The US build-out, though, is moving on other fronts. Squadron Energy has begun pre-installation of all 69 turbines at the 414MW Uungula wind farm in New South Wales, the only wind project under construction in Australia's biggest coal state, with transformers for the electrical infrastructure arriving days earlier.3
Neoen's 179MW Narrogin wind farm in Western Australia has also reached a construction milestone after Envision Energy received the Notice to Proceed for turbine supply and installation, with the project set to connect to Western Power's 220kV transmission network in the South West Interconnected System.5
Japan is adding capacity at the smaller end of the scale. German developer wpd began commercial operation of its first onshore wind project in the country, the 7.48MW Higashi Izu Furusato plant on a mountainous coastal ridge around 120km southwest of Tokyo, using three Enercon turbines.2
The contrast in project sizes across these geographies is worth holding on to. A 7.48MW plant in Shizuoka Prefecture and a 1.4GW build in the North Sea are different businesses entirely, yet both are competing for the same turbine supply chains and installation contractors that have been the binding constraint on wind deployment for the past two years.2,6
What to watch next is whether East Anglia Three's turbine installation campaign matches the pace of its foundation phase. The project's developers have not yet disclosed a revised commissioning date following the monopile completion, and with the UK's CfD auction round clearing at prices that have been described as tight for offshore wind, any schedule drift at a project of this scale would ripple through the supply chain that the rest of the European pipeline depends on.6