Vard has secured contracts for the design and build three service operation vessels (SOVs) for North Star Renewables in Scotland.
The trio of ships will operate on the Dogger Bank wind farm in the North Sea.
The three SOVs are set for handover to North Star in 2023. They will be built at Vard’s Vard Vung Tau shipyard in Vietnam.
The SOVs were developed by Vard in cooperation with Aberdeen-based North Star, which has secured 10-year charter contracts for the trio from Dogger Bank Wind Farm in an international competition.
The charters include options for three one-year extensions.
North Star announced it had secured the £270m contract for three state-of-the-art service vessels from world’s largest offshore wind farm last month
Dogger Bank is under construction by joint-venture partners SSE Renewables, Equinor and Eni and when completed will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
North Star Renewables CEO Matthew Gordon said: “We’ve worked closely with the team at Vard for over two years on the development of our SOVs for Dogger Bank.
“I’m delighted to be able to say that the work which went into to designing the vessels to meet the optimal standards of workability, comfort, safety and sustainability has resulted in us securing the award of three vessels on long term charters, which is a huge step for North Star on our journey to becoming a leading player within the SOV market.
“It’s exciting that these designs will now move into the construction phase and continuing that journey with VARD is a natural extension of our strong relationship.
“We’re confident that we have a high-quality design and build partner that will support us in bringing these advanced new vessels to the market.”
One SOV will be the Vard 4 19 design and the other two of its Vard 4 12 design.
The Vard 4 19 design has been developed specifically to handle planned maintenance on the Dogger Bank A and B wind arrays, said Vard.
All the vessels have a height-adjustable, motion-compensated gangway with elevator system, a height-adjustable boat transfer system, as well as a 3D-compensated crane for cargo transfer.
The Vard 4 19 design is able to perform corrective maintenance on Dogger Bank and the other Vard 4 12 pair will be 78 metres in length with a beam of 19 metres and accommodation for 60 persons in single cabins.
For “optimal efficiency”, the hybrid vessels will be equipped with a diesel-electric propulsion system, highly efficient main propellers, and tunnel thrusters with permanent magnet electric motors in combination with SeaQ solutions supplied by Vard Electro in Norway.