A Darlington firm, DeepOcean, has helped to protect 150 jobs as it secures a contract worth several million pounds to ship and lay cables that are to serve the biggest wind farm in the world. The wind farm which is located 120km away from the coast of Yorkshire is supposed to be able to produce more than one gigawatt of electricity. This will make it the first wind farm in history to produce electricity in excess of a gigawatt and is supposed to provide power to more than one million homes.
The Offshore work on the DONG Energy’s Hornsea Project One will start in 2018 and continue through 2019. The work will be carried out by dedicated vessels from DeepOcean’s in-house fleet which will trench and install 93 array cables.
Pierre Boyde, the commercial director for cables and trenching at DeepOcean stated that they are happy to be further building their relationship with DONG Energy which comes after having worked with the same company on the Walney Extension and the Race Bank projects. He mentioned that their company had made a lot of investments to ensure they had some of the machines used in installing and trenching cables and these machines are focussed on improving safety while also keeping productivity high. He also stated that the award would protect the jobs of 150 people in Darlington and nearby areas and will also create other opportunities along the supply chain in the UK.
There are several other UK companies that have also signed contracts with DONG Energy to provide several other components needed by the wind farm including the offshore reactive compensation station, offshore cables and onshore substation.
This project will be going further than the trenching and installation of array cables and will also include putting in messenger wires and a cable protection system. The combined length of the array cables will be 203 km. The first part of the Offshore work is expected to start in the third quarter of 2018 while the second campaign is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2019.
Duncan Clark, Hornsea Project One director stated that they have done a lot to ensure that businesses in the UK will receive a lot of benefits from the project. He also added that working with suppliers from the UK on this project will just be the first step as they look to build even more wind farms in the future.