Van Oord has successfully installed all monopile foundations at the RWE Sofia offshore wind farm in the central North Sea off the UK coast.
To execute the works, Van Oord deployed the offshore wind installation vessel Aeolus.
Van Oord said it is well underway with the installation and burial of approximately 360 kilometres of array cables, with completion expected in the third quarter of this year.
Van Oord expects the 1.4GW Sofia offshore wind farm to be operational in 2026, generating enough renewable energy to power approximately 1.2 million average UK households.
The project is located on Dogger Bank, approximately 195 kilometres from the nearest point on the UK's North East coast.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy supplied 100 of its 14MW offshore wind turbines while a specially formed consortium of GE Renewable Energy's Grid Solutions and Sembcorp Marine provided the transmission system for Sofia, including two HVDC converter stations.
RWE had contracted Van Oord for the design, engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the monopile foundations and array cables for this project, with Van Oord's vessel Calypso performing the cable installation scope.
"The project comes with its challenges, but I’m especially proud that we completed the foundation installation safely and diligently," Roeland Ris, Project Director at Van Oord, commented on the completed foundation installation works.