Dutch firm Van Oord has been selected by Germany’s RWE as the preferred supplier for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the monopile foundations and array cables for Sofia Offshore Wind Farm.
Van Oord, via MPI Offshore, will create a logistics hub to deliver the comprehensive scope of work. It will deploy offshore installation vessel Aeolus to install the 100 extended monopile foundations while the 350 km of array cables will be installed by cable lay vessel Nexus.
The 1.4 GW Sofia site is located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea.
Sven Utermöhlen, chief operating officer wind offshore global at RWE, commented: “On Dogger Bank, we are realising one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms. Van Oord is a well-known partner to us, with Sofia the fifth and largest UK offshore wind farm that we have worked on together. This gives us a wealth of experience to draw on as we progress the project through its construction phase. Sofia is a flagship for RWE Renewables in terms of technology and innovation, and for the UK through regional supply chain opportunities and as a major contributor to the nation’s net zero ambitions.”
Work on the foundation and array package is set to begin after the project’s financial investment decision, with installation scheduled for 2024.
