Fabrication of transition pieces (TPs) for two Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind projects in the UK is underway at Lamprell’s yard in the UAE.
The company cut the first steel for the Norfolk Vanguard West TPs in December 2025, with manufacturing now underway and the first load-out of completed TPs expected in the second half of this year. The fabrication of TPs for Vanguard East is planned to start in the third quarter of 2026.
Lamprell and RWE signed a contract for the two Norfolk Vanguard projects in 2024. The scope of works includes the manufacture and supply of 184 transition pieces, 92 for each wind farm, and the transportation of the structures to RWE’s official marshalling port.
Located 50 to 80 kilometres off the coast of Norfolk, the two offshore wind farms, each with a planned installed capacity of 1,380 MW, were first developed by Vattenfall , which sold the projects to RWE in 2023/2024.
In January this year, RWE secured Contracts for Difference (CfD) for both Vanguard West and Vanguard East at a strike price of GBP 91.20/MWh (around EUR 105.25/MWh) in the UK government’s seventh CfD round (AR7) .
Following the CfD award, RWE announced that the company had signed an agreement with KKR , under which the global investor would acquire a 50 per cent stake in each of the Norfolk Vanguard projects, and that it expects to make a final investment decision (FID) on the projects in the summer of 2026.
In February/March, RWE placed firm orders with Vestas for 92 of its V236-15.0 MW wind turbines for each of the two wind farms.
A firm order for the monopile foundations is yet to be revealed, but the supplier chosen at the time the projects were being developed by Vattenfall is SeAH’s facility in Teesside , northeast England.
The commissioning of Vanguard West is expected in 2029, with Vanguard East following suit in 2030.