A consortium of steel manufacturers Sif Netherlands B.V. and Smulders Projects Belgium N.V. will produce and supply all monopiles and transition pieces (TPs) for the Dogger Bank A & B offshore wind project off the North East coast of England. Foundation installation is planned to start in the summer of 2022.
The Dogger Bank offshore wind farm is a project of Dogger Bank Windfarm, a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Equinor. The wind farm, located more than 130 km off the Yorkshire coast with water depths ranging from 18 to 63 meters, is being developed in three phases – Dogger Bank A, B and C.
The initiators recently announced that it has opted for the Haliade X turbine with 13 MW capacity. Each stage has an installed capacity of 1.2 GW and represents an investment of several billion pounds. Combined, they will have an installed capacity of up to 3.6 GW. Upon completion, they will together form the largest offshore wind farm in the world.
260 kton of steel
Dogger Bank A and B require a total of 190 foundations. These are designed by UK-based Wood Thilsted. Approximately 260 kton of steel will be processed, Smulders reports.
Within the consortium, Sif is responsible for the fabrication and supply of the monopiles and primary steel for the transition pieces, and for the marshalling of all foundation components at its Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam terminal. Smulders will manufacture the secondary steel and assemble, coat and test the fully equipped TPs. Production at the Smulders factories in Poland and Belgium will start in May 2021. Assembly, which will take place at the Hoboken factory, will start in September 2021 and will take approximately 10 months.
The consortium indicates that it will work closely with the Dogger Bank team to include local UK content in the projects. The installation of the foundations will start in the summer of 2022. This will be done by Norwegian Offshore Heavy Transport AS.
The first phase, Dogger Bank A, is expected to be operational in 2023. The project will be the first in the UK to use a high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system due to the long distance to the grid connection point.
All contracts are still subject to reaching Financial Close for Dogger Bank A & B. This is expected to take place before the end of the year. Financial Close for Dogger Bank C is expected to follow at the end of 2021.
