Awind AS secures contract on world’s largest offshore wind farm

Awind AS is pleased to announce that it has secured a charter contract with Dogger Bank Wind Farm for chartering the first of our “walk-to-work” Commissioning Service Operation Vessels (CSOV). The contract will commence Q2 2023 and will be a key enabler for efficient commissioning of the 13MW GE Renewable Energy Haliade-X turbines on the first two phases of the development, Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B, until completion in 2025.

Christopher A. Heidenreich, Managing Director of Awind (IWS Fleet) said: “We are extremely pleased that Dogger Bank Wind Farm has chosen Awind to support its turbine commissioning at the world’s largest offshore wind farm. This demonstrates the attractiveness of these highly capable “walk-to-work” vessels, which will be equipped to handle a variety of tasks required to support offshore wind farms during the installation, commissioning, operations and maintenance phase”.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm Project Director, Steve Wilson, said: “Signing this contract with Awind for the “walk-to-work” vessel is another important milestone for the project. The vessel will play an important role in the safe commissioning of the turbines in the construction of the first two phases.”

About Awind AS

Awind (IWS Fleet) is a fully owned subsidiary of Integrated Wind Solutions headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Awind aims to be a leading provider of Service Operations Vessels for the commissioning and operations phase of offshore wind farms. The company has two newbuilds CSOVs under construction with delivery in 2023 from China Merchants Industry. In addition, Awind has secured option agreements for up to four additional vessels. The Company was established by the Awilco group and coupling over 80 years’ experience from both projects and operations in shipping and offshore.

The vessels are equipped for zero-emission operations by battery biased plug-in hybrid solution and are prepared for continuous zero-emission operations. The vessels have 3D motion compensated crane, motion compensated gangway and can accommodate up to 120 persons whereof a large majority of single cabins, tailored for highly efficient and safe “walk-to-work” operations.

About Dogger Bank Wind Farm:

• The 3.6GW Dogger Bank Wind Farm will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when completed in 2026.
• It is being built in three 1.2GW phases: Dogger Bank A, B and C.
• Dogger Bank A and B is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni (20%). Dogger Bank C is a 50:50 joint venture between Equinor and SSE Renewables.
• SSE Renewables is lead operator for the development and construction of Dogger Bank Wind Farm. Equinor will be lead operator of the wind farm for the duration of the wind farm’s operational phase
• Financial Close on Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B was reached in November 2020. Financial Close for Dogger Bank C is expected in late 2021.
• Consent for Dogger Bank Wind Farm was granted in 2015.
• Each of the three phases of Dogger Bank Wind Farm secured 15-year CfD contracts for 1.2GW of low carbon power for of low carbon power production in the UK’s third CfD Allocation Round, announced September 2019.
• In May 2021, Dogger Bank Wind Farm took another major step forward after passing a required delivery milestone under the UK’s Contracts for Difference scheme for low carbon power.
• Dogger Bank Wind Farm is located in the North Sea, with each phase more than 130km from the Yorkshire Coast.
• Onshore construction began in 2020 and is currently underway for Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B, with offshore construction on Dogger Bank A due to begin in Q2 2022. First power is expected in Summer 2023 and Summer 2024 for Dogger Bank A and B, respectively, with commercial operations to follow around 6 months later.
• Turbine installation for Dogger Bank C will begin in 2025.
• Almost 3000 new UK jobs have been announced so far that will be supported by the construction and operation of Dogger Bank Wind Farm.
• These include up to 750 direct and around 1,500 indirect jobs associated with the set-up of a new world-class blade manufacturing facility on Teesside by LM Wind Power, a GE Renewable Energy business, with production due to start in 2023.
• 470 jobs are expected to be recruited by GE Renewable Energy across the north east of England in support of the delivery and operation of all three phases of the project. These will be made up of around 300 skilled roles for turbine installation and commissioning activities and 170 servicing roles at Port of Tyne under GE’s five-year Service and Warranty Agreements for Dogger Bank phases A, B and C once operational.
• At least a further 30 roles will be hired by Equinor as operator of the wind farm, based at the Port of Tyne or offshore.
• 130 new full-time UK-based jobs will be created by North Star Renewables in crewing and shore-based roles for the operation of the three-vessel service fleet for Dogger Bank Wind Farm.
• Up to 100 peak construction jobs will be created by Jones Bros. Civil Engineering, one of the UK’s leading civil engineering contractors, on the installation of onshore cable infrastructure for Dogger Bank A and B.
• Dogger Bank A and B has confirmed GE’s Haliade-X 13MW as the turbine powering the first two phases of the project. As the first order for the Haliade-X 13MW, installation at Dogger Bank A will be the first time the turbine is installed in the world.
• Installation of GE’s upscaled Haliade-X 14MW turbine at Dogger Bank C will be the first time the 14MW turbine is installed in the world.
• One rotation of the Haliade-X turbine blades can power one UK home for more than two days.
• The wind turbines will be installed on monopile foundations.
• The project will be the first High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connected wind farm in the UK due to its distance from shore, introducing new transmission systems to the UK and paving the way for other large offshore wind farms.

For more information about Dogger Bank Wind Farm visit www.doggerbank.com