The 169 wind turbines spinning off the Yorkshire coast are an engineering feat: each eight-megawatt model erected by Danish developer Orsted can power a home for 24 hours with a single rotation of its 81-metre turbine blades.
Dozens of miles north, rival wind farm developer SSE is already upping the ante with its newest turbines, where a single rotation of the 107-metre blade can power a home for two days.
The jump in turbine size in the offshore wind industry, where blades can reach higher than New York’s Rockefeller Center and provide electricity for millions of homes, reflects the fierce race for scale over the past decade or more.