Swan Hunter has completed work to spool export cables into storage baskets for the 370MW Norther offshore wind farm at its yard in Vlissingen, the Netherlands.
According to the marine energy equipment provider the last sections of spare array and export cables have been transpooled from Van Oord’s cable laying vessel (CLV) Nexus and Swan Hunter’s onshore basket carousel, to baskets for long-term storage.
The completion of the final spooling operation marks the end of a year-long contract for Swan Hunter with Van Oord.
The scope of work included export cable load-in, interim storage and protection, export cable load-out to the CLV, plus spare cable transpooling and handling operations.
Finally, the loaded baskets had to be transported to the long-term storage site in Belgium, according to Swan Hunter.
Company director Gerard Kroese said: “The successful completion of this project for Van Oord further exhibits our storage and spooling yard as an attractive and strategic choice for installation contractors in the offshore wind industry.
“With a busy yard schedule ahead for the second quarter of 2019, the combination of our dedicated cable handling equipment and strategically placed ‘direct to sea’ yard, proves the attraction of our full service solution to the offshore wind industry supply chain.”
First power from Norther, which is expected to be operational by the summer, was delivered to the grid from MHI Vestas turbines last month.
The first of 44 V164-8.4MW machines was installed by Van Oord jack-up Aeolus at the start of February.
A total of 12 units have so far been installed at the project and four of these are powered up.