Ørsted and Jan De Nul Group have signed the offshore export cable installation contract for the 2.9 GW Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm in the UK. This is the first offshore HVDC installation contract awarded by Ørsted in the UK, the company said.
Belgium-headquartered Jan De Nul Group will be responsible for the seabed preparation, transport, installation, and protection of 350 KM of HVDC export cables and platform interlink cable connecting the offshore wind farm to the UK electricity grid.
“ We are proud to support Ørsted in building the world’s largest individual offshore wind farm by connecting 2.9 GW of renewable energy capacity to the UK’s national grid. Thanks to our collaboration with Ørsted, which includes recent projects such as the monopile installations for Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 in Germany, we keep on constructing the energy transition together ,” said Wouter Vermeersch , manager of offshore cables at Jan De Nul Group.
Cable-laying vessels Isaac Newton and Connector will transport and install the cables, and a variety of burial solutions will be used to protect the cables, including the rock-installation vessel Simon Stevin which will install up to 150,000 tonnes of rock.
The cable installation operations are planned to start during 2025 with all works scheduled to be finished by 2027.
“Awarding this contract is a significant milestone for Hornsea 3, completing our major contract awards for the world’s largest offshore transmission system. Together with our contractor partners Aibel, Hitachi, NKT, Volker Fitzpatrick and AMS No-Dig, we will deliver a truly exceptional system that will connect 2.9 GW of green energy to the UK,” said Luke Bridgman , Hornsea 3 Senior Project Director at Ørsted.
In March 2023, Ørsted awarded Denmark’s NKT with a supply contract for the delivery of the export power cable system for Hornsea 3 which includes two circuits with a route length of approximately 170 kilometres of 320 kV DC offshore cable, 50 kilometres of 320 kV DC onshore cable, as well as four circuits for a 1.5-kilometre route of 400 kV AC onshore cable.
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The 2,9 GW Hornsea 3 is located approximately 160 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast. When Hornsea 3 comes online, the combined capacity of Hornsea 1, 2, and 3 will be in excess of 5 GW, making it one of the world’s largest offshore wind zones.
Once fully completed, Hornsea 3 with up to 200 wind turbines, will be capable of generating enough renewable electricity to power more than 3.3 million UK homes.