A2SEA’s wind farm installation vessel Sea Challenger has installed the first turbine on the 402MW Dudgeon offshore wind farm situated some 32 kilometres off North Norfolk, UK.
The first out of the 67 Siemens 6MW turbines was installed on Saturday, 7 January.
For the next months, the vessel will install the turbines being shipped from Green Port Hull. This is the first time the Port of Hull will be used as a load out port for an offshore wind project, A2SEA said.
Jens Frederik Hansen, CEO at A2SEA, said: ”We have wide experience in handling the Siemens 6MW turbines, but it cannot be done without good team work. It is a great pleasure to once again work together with Siemens, but also our renewed cooperation and partnership with Statoil, which started on their first offshore wind project Sheringham Shoal, and now continues on the Dudgeon project.”
Prior to heading to Hull and loading the first batch of turbine components, Sea Challenger had been used for offshore accommodation during completion and commissioning of the offshore substation at the site.
The Dudgeon offshore wind farm is owned by Statoil (35%), Masdar (35%) and Statkraft (30%).
Statoil is developing the Dudgeon offshore wind farm and will continue as its operator when it starts generating electricity in early 2017.
The full commissioning of the wind farm is expected by late 2017.