Esvagt Alba SOV Arrives in Scotland, Getting Ready for Moray East OWF

The service operations vessel (SOV) Esvagt Alba, which Havyard delivered to Esvagt a week ago, arrived in Fraserburgh, Scotland, on 1 July for final marine surveys before commencing work at the Moray East offshore wind farm, which will feature 100 Vestas turbines.

Esvagt Alba is the second of three purpose-built SOVs that Esvagt has built for Vestas and sister vessel to the previous newbuilt in Esvagt’s fleet, the SOV Esvagt Schelde, now in service for Vestas at the Borssele 3 & 4 and Northwester 2 wind farms in Dutch and Belgian waters, respectively.

Norwegian shipbuilder Havyard Leirvik handed over Esvagt Alba to the Danish offshore energy vessel operator at the end of June.

“The sea trials have gone well, and the DP system and height adjustable W2W gangway in particular have been thoroughly tested”, said Gerner Eskelund, Project Director, Newbuilding and Projects at Esvagt. “After half a year in the windfarms, all feedback on the ’Esvagt Schelde’ has been positive and the adjustments we have made between the two sister vessels have been limited to minor improvements to the interior design”.

At the 100-turbine Moray East offshore wind farm, more than half of the Vestas 9.5 MW wind turbines have been installed so far.

The 950 MW wind farm, located in Moray Firth, 22 kilometres off the east coast of Scotland, is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2022.

The project is being developed by Moray Offshore Windfarm East Ltd., which is a joint venture company owned by Ocean Winds (56.6 per cent), Diamond Green Limited (33.4 per cent), and CTG (10 per cent).