DEME Group subsidiary Tideway has installed the first offshore export cable section at Orsted’s 1.2GW Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm 120km off the Yorkshire coast in England.
Tideway is using Ocean Yield’s cable lay vessel Connector to carry out the work.
Connector has been fitted with a bespoke back deck cable lay spread designed and installed by Tideway for the Hornsea job.
The scope of the work includes installation, engineering, boulder removal, pre-trenching, pulling in wires to the substations, crossing installation, offshore jointing and burial.
A total of three HV subsea wires will carry electricity from the project’s three offshore substations to the UK mainland.
Tideway project manager Ken Swaegers said: “This is a very exciting job for us, and an amazing opportunity to work on the biggest construction project in offshore wind.
“Due to its scale we have several vessels operating at the site, and over summer, the Connector will be accompanied by our own brand new cable laying vessel Living Stone.”
Living Stone will be equipped with a dual-lane installation system – one for laying the wires and one where the next cable can be simultaneously prepared, he said.
Hornsea 1 project director Duncan Clark said: “We are pleased that Tideway has been able to mobilise the Connector to meet our specific requirements for this project, and we look forward to Living Stone coming to site to help build this remarkable wind farm project.”
Hornsea 1 will feature 174 Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines and is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
Image: Tideway carrying out export cable installation at Hornsea 1 (Håkon Seim, Ocean Yield)
Tideway triumph at Hornsea 1
By EBS