Offshore construction officially began on Sofia marine wind farm 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of RWE to install important undersea cable infrastructure from the north-east coast of the United Kingdom to the wind farm site on the Dogger Bank in the center of the North Sea.
she Bouquet by Leonardo da Vinci High-tech cable contractor Prysmian will lay the first section of the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) export cable, ready to carry green electricity from the wind farm to the UK coast and into the transmission network from the United Kingdom .
The work marks a major milestone for the project, with Sofia representing a more than £3bn investment in UK energy infrastructure by RWE. The wind farm will make a significant contribution to the country’s net zero emissions targets and will be able to generate enough clean electricity to meet the needs of more than 1.2 million average UK homes.
Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind: “Sofia is RWE’s largest renewable construction project to date, and the furthest from the coast. The project sets new standards in terms of solving innovation, sustainability and engineering challenges. The installation of the first section of the export cable represents the culmination of 13 years of planning, preparation and hard work, as well as a lot of support from suppliers and stakeholders. “Building a project of this size and scale is a great opportunity to demonstrate our expertise in delivering offshore wind power around the world.”
The Sofia offshore wind farm is located on the Dogger Bank, 195 kilometers from the nearest point of the north-east coast of the United Kingdom, and has an offshore conversion platform, with the electricity generated being brought to the shore 220 kilometers away in Redcar , Teesside.
The wind farm will be used 100 14 megawatt offshore wind turbines (MW) from Siemens Gamesa (SG 14-222 DD), the most advanced offshore wind turbine technology available, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026. Forty-four of the project’s 100 turbines will be equipped with recyclable blades. Wind farm operation and maintenance activities will be located at RWE’s new offshore wind operations base Grimsby Hub‘, which will also support the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm and future projects.
The ship is 170 meters long Prysmian It will operate from the Port of Middlesbrough and lay two 130 kilometer cable sections in parallel. It will begin work on laying a cable from the Teesside coast between Redcar and Marske-by-the-Sea. One end of each of the two sections of the undersea cable will be towed underwater from the ship through cable conduits that were installed earlier this year. The cable passes under the beach, sand and road before exiting the landfall construction complex. The lead ship will move from the shore, laying the entire length of the cable along its established route to the offshore wind farm.
The installation of the two remaining 90 km sections of the marine export cable is planned for 2024. By the end of 2024, Leonardo da Vinci will install four sections of ± 320kV HVDC marine export cables with XLPE insulation, with a total of 440 kilometers plus the communication cables that accompany it.
Onshore construction has been underway in Teesside since June 2021, to build the project’s onshore converter station and cable corridor. The laying of the first sections of the export cable marks the start of a three-year offshore construction phase.
Ongoing offshore construction work will include the arrival of the project’s offshore conversion platform, which will make the journey from Batam, Indonesia, to the UK in 2024. Installation of 100 extended monopile foundations and matrix cables.
RWE is the UK’s largest energy producer and has ambitions to invest up to £15 billion gross in new technologies and green infrastructure in the UK by 2030.
Tom Glover, President of RWE UK: “RWE has 10 offshore wind farms already operating across the UK, and is a leading partner in clean energy generation that helps ensure security of electricity supply. This important milestone in the construction of Sofia further demonstrates our inspiring expertise in offshore wind, which has been pioneering for over 20 years in the UK. And the UK continues to be of key strategic importance to RWE. “We continue to drive our ambition to grow green through a strong future development pipeline, which will play a key role in delivering our own and the country’s net zero ambitions.”
RWE has a strong UK project portfolio and is involved in four of the UK’s seven offshore wind expansion projects in the UK, in addition to the two Round 4 Dogger Bank South projects. The company is also exploring offshore wind projects, including in the Celtic Sea region.
