Ocean services provider DeepOcean has been awarded a contract for RWE’s Nordseecluster A offshore wind project in Germany.
RWE has recently made the final investment decision for the Nordseecluster which consists of two phases – Nordseecluster A and B – with a total capacity of 1.6GW. The wind farms will be built in the German North Sea, some 50 km north of the island of Juist.
This award comes after being chosen as the preferred supplier for subsea installation services for the project in August 2023.
DeepOcean has now been awarded a firm order to include preparatory work, transport, and installations of all inter-array cables, including trenching, topside pull-ins and terminations for the initial build-out phase. The company will install 185 km of 66kV aluminium and copper cables to connect all 44 offshore wind turbines of Nordseecluster A.
Nordseecluster A has a total capacity of 660MW. Construction at sea is scheduled to begin next year. By the beginning of 2027, all wind turbines shall be connected to the grid. The second phase, Nordseecluster B, will add a further 900MW capacity, with commercial operation expected to begin in early 2029.
DeepOcean’s scope of work also includes project management and engineering, offshore preparation work including pre-installation cable route survey, route engineering and burial assessment, boulder relocation, foundation preparatory work and offshore substation preparatory work.
Furthermore, the company will transport and install inter-array cables including burial, pull-in, monitoring and testing as well as seabed surveys and monitoring.
Project management will be based out of Aberdeen, with support functions provided across DeepOcean’s UK and Norway offices. DeepOcean’s offshore preparations and pre-installation surveys will begin in the second quarter of 2025, with the main works commencing in the beginning of 2026. DeepOcean will utilize three vessels for the project.
