Vard has held a keel-laying ceremony for the third service operations vessel (SOV) that the company is building for North Star at Vard Vung Tau shipyard in Vietnam.
Vard and North Star signed a contract for a total of four SOVs which are bound for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the UK.
Each of the four Dogger Bank SOVs have been contracted on a 10-year agreement, with three additional one-year options.
The SOVs are developed by Vard Design in Norway in close cooperation with the owner.
The vessels will feature a hybrid battery solution and will be prepared for carbon-neutral operations in the future, according to Vard Design concept designer Stian Ona.
North Star’s SOVs will also have a height-adjustable, motion-compensated gangway with an elevator system, a height-adjustable boat transfer system as well as a 3D-compensated crane for cargo transfer and MO4’s AI decision support software.
Work on the first vessel commenced in October and the first SOVs are scheduled to arrive at Port of Tyne in summer 2023, with the Dogger Bank C ship due in 2025.
Due to its size and scale, Dogger Bank is being built in three consecutive 1.2 GW phases: Dogger Bank A, Dogger Bank B, and Dogger Bank C. In total the wind farm is expected to generate enough renewable electricity to supply five per cent of the UK’s demand, equivalent to powering six million homes, once fully operational in 2026.