Aibel has contracted Heerema Marine Contractors to transport and install two HVDC offshore converter platforms for the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm in the UK.
The work will include transporting and installing two jacket foundations, eight skirt piles, and two topsides.
The contract was signed after Ørsted was allocated a Contract for Difference (CfD) by the UK Government on 7 July for what is deemed the world’s single biggest offshore wind farm.
Hornsea 3 will have an installed capacity of 2,852 MW, enough to meet the average daily needs of over three million UK homes.
After securing a CfD, Ørsted awarded an EPCI contract for the two platforms to Aibel, which will deliver them in partnership with Hitachi Energy. Aibel is responsible for engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of two HVDC converter platforms, with Hitachi Energy supplying two HVDC Light® converter systems.
The contracts with Aibel and Hitachi Energy are subject to Ørsted reaching Final Investment Decision (FID) on Hornsea 3, which is expected within the next 18 months and potentially as soon as the end of 2022.
As for Heerema, the company already did similar work at Ørsted’s Hornsea area, having installed the two Hornsea 2 offshore substations in 2021.
For this work, which involved installing the wind farm’s offshore substation and the Reactive Compensation Station (RCS), Heerema used its installation vessel Sleipnir.
Hornsea 2, currently under construction, will become the world’s biggest offshore wind farm in operation, once commissioned later this year.