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Walney News

25 Sep 2023

Ørsted to Deploy Rutter's Wave Prediction Tech on CTVs

(Photo: Ørsted)

Offshore wind developer Ørsted is deploying Rutter’s wave prediction technology on board selected crew transfer vessels (CTV) worldwide within its contracted fleet to improve the safe transfer of personnel to offshore wind turbines.Roots of the initiative stretch back to 2018, when the two companies launched a project to investigate wave prediction applications for improving safety during transfers from CTVs to offshore wind turbines, resulting in the development of wave prediction…

21 Feb 2023

BAE Systems Delivers Fifth Astute Submarine to UK Royal Navy

(Photo: BAE Systems)

HMS Anson, the fifth Astute class submarine, which BAE Systems has designed and built for the Royal Navy, has departed the company's shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and headed out to open sea for the first time.After being guided through the shipyard's dock system and rounding the tip of Walney Island, HMS Anson began her maiden journey to His Majesty's Naval Base Clyde, home of the UK's Submarine Service. She will undertake sea trials before joining HMS Astute, HMS Ambush…

08 Jan 2021

N-O-S to Provide Vessels for Ørsted's UK West Coast Wind Farms

Credit:twixter/AdobeStock

Crew transfer vessel company Northern Offshore Services (N-O-S) has signed a contract with the offshore wind farm giant Ørsted to provide vessels for its British west coast operations.N-O-S will provide crew transfer support to Ørsted’s UK West Coast Hub through the provision of seven CTVs over the next three years. The first vessels will start at the beginning of 2021 and will be accompanied by more vessels gradually until the summer. The N-O-S crew transfer vessels will operate on Walney…

10 Dec 2019

Ørsted Announces STEM Skills Fund

Denmark's offshore wind giant Ørsted A/S has unveiled more than £50k for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills across Lancashire and Cumbria.The renewable energy developer says the wave of new finance will be sourced from the Walney Extension Skills Fund.An award of nearly £40,000 goes to STEM Learning Ltd to develop two ENTHUSE Partnership projects in Cumbria and Lancaster. Each Partnership project will bring together eight schools and colleges from within the eligible funding area, to develop a two-year intensive improvement program to raise achievement and aspiration in STEM subjects.Fran Dainty, Head of STEM Expertise…

27 Mar 2019

Arctic (& Wind) Operations: Hands Across the Water

Renderings of the proposed Aeolus wind support fleet

As the North American offshore wind model evolves, it is clear that fit-for-purpose, Jones Act compliant and Arctic ready tonnage will need to be part of the equation. If so, we’ve got that box checked, with a little help from Europe.As of September 2018, the Walney Extension off the United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 659 megawatts. There are at least 70 major wind farms, each with hundreds of wind turbines, each generating as much as 10 megawatts in offshore England, the North Sea, Russia and China.

17 Feb 2019

World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Generates First Power

The first turbine of the 1,218-MW Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm in the North Sea, the world’s biggest such facility, has been installed and is now generating power.Matthew Wright, UK managing director of Danish energy group Ørsted A/S, described the installation of the first turbine as "a globally significant milestone".Ørsted co-owns the project with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) after selling a 50% stake to the latter in November 2018. Ørsted began offshore construction just over a year ago, and expects the project to be completed by Q1 2020.The project is located 120km off the Yorkshire Coast and will consist of 174 Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines.

12 Feb 2019

Europe Offshore Wind Capacity Up 18% in 2018

Europe installed a total of 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of new offshore wind capacity in 2018, an 18% increase which takes the region to a total capacity of 18.5 GW.According to new figures published this week by the region’s wind energy trade body, WindEurope, 15 new offshore wind farms came on line. The UK and Germany accounted for 85% of the new capacity: 1.3 GW and 969 MW respectively.Europe now has 105 offshore wind farms across 11 countries with a total capacity of 18.5 GW. This is around 10% of the total installed wind energy capacity in Europe – the rest is onshore.The size and scale of offshore wind continues to rise. The average size of the new turbines installed last year was 6.8 MW, 15% up on 2017.

05 Sep 2018

World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Opens

(File photo: Orsted)

The world's largest offshore wind farm will open on Thursday off the northwest coast of England when Danish energy group Orsted unveils the Walney Extension project.The wind farm has a capacity of 659 megawatts (MW), enough to power almost 600,000 homes, and overtakes the London Array off England's east coast which has a capacity of 630 MW.Walney Extension is made up of 87 turbines built by Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas, and covers 145 square kilometers (55 square miles), which is equivalent to around 20,000 football pitches.The 40 eight-megawatt MHI Vestas turbines being used stand 195 meters

14 Jun 2018

SAL Heavy Lift Inks Deal for Horns Rev 3 Shipments

Photo: SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift said it signed a contract with GeoSea NV for the shipment of a total of 49 transition pieces for the Horns Rev 3 Offshore Wind Farm.The assignment compiles transportation of TPs from fabrication yards in Aalborg, Denmark and Vlissingen, Netherlands to the project port of Esbjerg in Denmark. SAL must prepare a full HSSE and Quality plan, create the technical design and finalize the engineering work, execute procurement as well as fabrication of five TP grillages and one lifting tool and get the vessel ready to load the first units.Each of the 49 TP’s measures 32…

12 Feb 2018

DNV GL Lends Support to Walney 3 Offshore Wind Project

DNV GL has secured a role as technical advisor to a group of institutional lenders with their investment of the 659MW Walney Extension. Located off the coast of North West England at Barrow-in-Furness, the Walney Extension offshore wind farm will bring a mix of wind turbine types, featuring 40 MHI Vestas V164 and 47 Siemens SWT-7.0-154 turbines. DNV GL conducted a detailed technical due diligence study and full independent energy production assessment, allowing the group of lenders to develop an understanding of the technical characteristics and risk profile. The group of lenders includes Aviva Investors, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets and Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solution.

25 Jul 2017

Vroon W2W Vessel Upgraded ahead of First Charter

(Photo: Damen)

VOS Start, Vroon BV’s first DP2, subsea-support, walk-to-work (W2W) vessel has departed Damen Shiprepair Oranjewerf following the installation of a first of its kind motion-compensated gangway system by Barge Master and Bosch Rexroth, the extended installation of a Kongsberg reference system (including a ‘windfarm module’), and an active heave-compensated crane from SMST. The 80m VOS Start arrived at Oranjewerf on June 1 from her build yard in China, staying for eight weeks in the yard to also undergo various other upgrades and preparations for her first project…

17 May 2017

Damen's First 'Renewables Service Vessel' Launched

Voe Vanguard, the first vessel of Damen’s RSV 3315 series (Photo: Damen)

Damen has launched the first of a new vessel type, the Renewables Service Vessel (RSV) 3315, which has been developed in close cooperation with Scottish company Delta Marine. The first in the new series was officially christened Voe Vanguard at Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld by Miss Akira Mary Lumsden, the granddaughter of Bob Spanswick, Managing Director of Delta Marine Ltd. Just a week later Voe Vanguard was off to her first offshore wind farm, the Walney Extension project. Delta…

04 May 2016

ABB Transformers for the Most Powerful Wind Turbines

ABB will deploy 40 special transformers to equip wind turbines for an offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea. The MHI Vestas Offshore Wind turbines are 195 m (640 ft) tall - around two-thirds the height of the Eiffel Tower - and weigh 1000 metric tons, approximately double a fully-loaded Airbus A380 plane. Its 80 m (262 ft) rotor blades sweep through an area equivalent of three soccer fields and can produce up to eight megawatts of power, making it the most powerful wind turbine in the world. ABB received the order from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind for the Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, located around 19 kilometers west of Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria, England. The offshore wind farm is owned by the Danish utility DONG Energy A/S.

31 Mar 2016

ABB to Link Offshore Wind Farm to UK Grid

ABB has won an order worth more than $250 million from the Danish energy company DONG Energy to deliver a 220-kilovolt (kV) high-voltage cable system that will connect the Hornsea Project One Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea to the UK mainland grid. This is the third project that ABB will execute for DONG Energy, following the Burbo Bank extension and Walney extension links in the Irish Sea. Hornsea Project One will be the world’s largest capacity offshore wind farm, capable of generating 1.2 gigawatts of renewable energy and bringing clean electricity to well over one million UK households. ABB will supply alternating current (AC) submarine cable systems for the Eastern and Western circuit…

10 Feb 2016

MTS Assists Damen in Maersk Connector Sea Trials

Leading marine service provider, Marine and Towage Services Group Ltd. (MTS) has supported shipbuilder Damen during sea trials of its latest offshore cabling vessel, Maersk Connector. During the two-week testing period, MTS Vigilant, a Damen Shoalbuster, undertook essential anchor handling work to test the capabilities of the new vessel’s advanced mooring systems ahead of her handover to end client Maersk Supply Service and charterer DeepOcean. Current and anticipated growth in the offshore energy sector throughout European waters continues to drive demand for versatile subsea support vessels to carry out critical cable laying and interconnection work.

05 Feb 2016

Damen Builds Cable Installer For Maersk Supply Service

Photo: Damen

A newbuild DP2 cable installation vessel, Maersk Connector, was handed over from Damen Shipyards Group to Maersk Supply Service on February 4, 2016, and now goes directly on a long-term charter for subsea services provider DeepOcean. Built at Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania, Maersk Connector is the second of a new generation of cable-laying vessels based on the Damen Offshore Carrier (DOC) 8500 platform, customized to meet the challenges of reducing offshore renewables costs, the builder said.

01 Dec 2015

Seajacks Scylla Delivered

Seajacks Scylla (Photo: Seajacks)

Seajacks Scylla, touted as the world's largest and most advanced wind farm installation and offshore construction vessel, has been delivered by the Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard in Geoje, Republic of Korea. Based on the Gusto MSC NG14000X design, the ABS-classed Seajacks Scylla, has more than 8,000 metric tons of available variable deck load. Equipped with a 1,540-metric-ton leg-encircling crane and a usable deck space in excess of 5,000 square meters the unit is outfitted with 105-meter legs with the ability to install components in water depths to 65 meters.

28 Oct 2015

DONG Plans World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm

Image: DONG Energy

DONG Energy announced today it has decided to construct the 660MW Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, located in the Irish Sea, approximately 19 kilometersm off the west coast of Britain. The final investment decision has been made after securing all necessary consents from authorities, completing site assessments and having signed the majority of the contracts for supply and installation to build the project, DONG said. Walney Extension is expected to be fully commissioned in 2018…

24 Aug 2015

Survey Underway for Morecambe Bay LNG Project

Photo courtesy of Bibby HydroMap

Seabed survey company Bibby HydroMap have begun survey operations on the proposed LNG project off Morecambe Bay. The work program comprises geophysical, geotechnical and environmental surveying of the proposed pipeline route to shore and will be undertaken using a multi-vessel approach. Bibby HydroMap’s own vessels Chartwell and Eagle will perform the geophysical and environmental scope, acquiring multibeam bathymetry, side scan sonar data, sub-bottom profiler and magnetometer data, alongside benthic grab samples and visual inspection.

17 Jun 2015

CWind Bags Crew Transfer Contract

CWind wins crew transfer vessel contract from Fred Olsen at Walney 1 & 2 offshore wind farms   CWind announced that it has won an eight-month contract to provide crew transfer services to Fred Olsen at Walney 1 and 2 offshore wind farms. One of the more than 20 crew transfer vessels in the fleet operated by CWind, will assist with O&M activities at the two wind farms.   Peter Jorgensen, Managing Director, CWind commented the contract win: “Fred Olsen had a requirement for an additional crew transfer vessel and we’re delighted to be able to support them in their operations.”

11 Nov 2014

Regulatory Okay for UK Offshore Wind Farm Extension

Existing wind farm has 367 MW capacity; extension is for a further 750 MW capacity. The British government has given consent for an offshore wind farm off Cumbria in the Irish Sea to be extended, Britain's Planning Inspectorate said on Friday, tripling its total electricity generation capacity. Walney wind farm currently has capacity of 367 megawatts (MW) and is owned by DONG Energy and SSE. The extension, owned solely by DONG Energy, will be to the west and northwest of the existing site, adding up to 750 MW of capacity. "This is a significant application for the offshore wind energy sector. It could add 207 offshore wind turbines to the existing 102 turbines of Walney 1 and 2 to generate enough to provide electricity to over half a million homes…

07 Nov 2014

UK Offshore Wind Farm Gets Okay for Growth

Existing wind farm has 367 MW capacity; extension is for a further 750 MW capacity. The British government has given consent for an offshore wind farm off Cumbria in the Irish Sea to be extended, Britain's Planning Inspectorate said on Friday, tripling its total electricity generation capacity. The extension of the Walney wind farm developed by DONG Energy and SSE will be to the west and northwest and will add up to 750 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity to the 367 MW currently. "This is a significant application for the offshore wind energy sector. It could add 207 offshore wind turbines to the existing 102 turbines of Walney 1 and 2 to generate enough to provide electricity to over half a million homes," Planning Inspectorate chief Simon Ridley said in a statement.

05 Aug 2014

Serica Completes Farm Out to Centrica of East Irish Blocks

Serica Energy plc is pleased to confirm it has now completed the farm out of UK East Irish Sea Blocks 113/26b and 113/27c (Licence P.1482) with Centrica through its subsidiary Hydrocarbon Resources Limited. Under the agreement, HRL has acquired an operated 45% interest in the licence, with Serica retaining 20%,in consideration for HRL bearing Serica’s share of costs associated with the drilling of an exploration well, upto a gross cap of £11 million. In addition, the transaction involved the transfer from Serica to HRL of a 15% interest and operatorship in the adjacent Block 113/22a (Licence P.2124), which was awarded in the 27th Offshore Licensing Round. The equity interests over the two licences are now aligned.