Dogger Bank Wind Farm has chartered Awind’s “walk-to-work” Commissioning Service Operation Vessels (CSOV) for the 3600MW project.
The contract will commence in Q2 2023 and will be a key enabler for efficient commissioning of the 13MW GE Renewable Energy Haliade-X turbines on the first two phases of the development, Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B, until completion in 2025.
Awind (IWS Fleet) managing director Christopher A. Heidenreich said: “We are extremely pleased that Dogger Bank Wind Farm has chosen Awind to support its turbine commissioning at the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
“This demonstrates the attractiveness of these highly capable ‘walk-to-work’ vessels, which will be equipped to handle a variety of tasks required to support offshore wind farms during the installation, commissioning, operations and maintenance phase.”
Dogger Bank Wind Farm project director Steve Wilson added: “Signing this contract with Awind for the ‘walk-to-work’ vessel is another important milestone for the project.
“The vessel will play an important role in the safe commissioning of the turbines in the construction of the first two phases.”
Awind (IWS Fleet) is a fully owned subsidiary of Integrated Wind Solutions headquartered in Oslo, Norway.
Awind aims to be a leading provider of service operations vessels for the commissioning and operations phase of offshore wind farms.
The company has two newbuilds CSOVs under construction with delivery in 2023 from China Merchants Industry.
In addition, Awind has secured option agreements for up to four additional vessels.
The Company was established by the Awilco group and coupling over 80 years’ experience from both projects and operations in shipping and offshore.
The vessels are equipped for zero-emission operations by battery biased plug-in hybrid solution and are prepared for continuous zero-emission operations.
They have 3D motion compensated crane, motion compensated gangway and can accommodate up to 120 persons whereof a large majority of single cabins, tailored for highly efficient and safe ‘walk-to-work’ operations.