HIP announces plans for 10 GW fixed and floating wind turbines in North Atlantic

HIP has lodged four connection applications with National Grid Company for an initial 4,000 MW of grid connections to the UK's 400 kV electricity transmission system across four connection sites. Each wind farm – or pod - will be in a different North Atlantic location, and each pod consisting of 1,000 MW of wind turbines will have its own dedicated cable linked to the United Kingdom.

HIP Atlantic's initial 2,000 MW of generation capacity, targeted to be off the southern and eastern coasts of Iceland, is expected to be commissioned in early 2025 to coincide with the United Kingdom's de-commissioning of its last coal-fired power plants and the last of its original generation of commercial nuclear power plants. Crucially, the HIP Atlantic HVDC transmission cables will never connect to the Icelandic transmission system: the high availability wind capacity will be solely connected to the United Kingdom, dispatched by National Grid.

HIP's planned offshore wind pods in the North Atlantic will all be installed in a different meteorological catchment area from current North Sea and Irish Sea wind farms and so HIP renewable electricity can be supplied at times when existing British wind farms are becalmed.  This diversity of wind source provides a geographical portfolio effect to protect the UK transmission grid from too much offshore wind capacity installed in just one region.