About Sofia Offshore Wind Farm

Sofia Offshore Wind Farm is a significant economic opportunity for the UK with potential supply chain benefits, and associated direct and indirect jobs and contracts. It represents an almost £3 billion investment in the UK’s electricity infrastructure. By working collaboratively and innovatively with competitive UK suppliers it is expected that Sofia’s UK content will exceed 50% over the life time of the wind farm.

The total amount of power Sofia is likely to generate would be enough to potentially provide almost 1.2 million average UK homes with their annual electricity needs. At around 6 TWh per annum that’s almost half of all the electricity used in the North East each year. (Digest of UK Energy Statistics, December 2018)

Sofia achieved the lowest ever strike price for offshore wind in the 2019 UK Contracts for Difference auction. At £39.65 per megawatt hour, offshore wind is currently the cheapest source of new electricity in the UK. The technology is set to be the backbone of the UK’s clean, modern energy system and the biggest contributor towards meeting the nation’s net-zero emissions target.

Once operational, the energy generated by Sofia's turbines will save more than 2.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year when compared to the use of fossil fuels in the UK, according to BEIS’ “all fossil fuels” emissions statistic of 446 tonnes of carbon dioxide per GWh of electricity supplied in the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (July 2020).

Sofia is projected to contribute around £760 million in GVA to the UK economy, of which up to £181 million will be in Yorkshire and Humber regions and £62 million in the North East.

Full details are available in the Sofia Socio-Economic Research Study, available in the publications section of this website.

Sofia is projected to generate 8,810 full-time equivalent (FTE) person-years of work across the UK, including 1,600 in Yorkshire and Humber and 490 in the North East. That's equivalent to ~2,000 jobs during the peak of construction and ~80 long-term, skilled, operational jobs.

The project has reached over 12,700 learners from primary schools to universities, to promote STEM career pathways. We run a teacher training programme, Champions for Wind, which helps teachers to develop classroom resources for teaching about renewable energy. We also sponsor the Energy Central Learning Hub, a purpose-built training facility for the offshore wind sector, in Blyth.

Benefits to the supply chain include specialist training for SGRE staff in Hull, high-value manufacturing jobs for GE staff in Stafford and upgrades to facilities at the Port of Blyth and Port of Tyne. RWE's Supplier Transparency Engagement Programme (STEP) has enabled local businesses to bid for and secure contracts, boosting both short- and long-term economic activity