Hellenic Cables, Jan De Nul secure new offshore wind contract as RWE gathers Thor project dream team

RWE has selected the preferred suppliers for all the main components of its 1 GW Thor offshore wind farm in Denmark, with agreements now in place for wind turbines, foundations, export and inter-array cables, and for the onshore and offshore substations.

At the beginning of this year, the developer selected Siemens Gamesa’s SG 14-236 DD offshore wind turbine model, 72 units of which will be spinning at the Thor site and half of them to be installed on Siemens Gamesa’s newly launched GreenerTowers.

Fred. Olsen Windcarrier will provide a vessel for the turbine installation, which is scheduled to be carried out from the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, starting in 2026.

The wind turbines and their towers will be supported by monopile foundations, with 36 monopile foundations to be manufactured by EEW SPC and a further 36 to be delivered by Dajin Offshore, together with secondary structures.

The foundations, designed by Wood Thilsted, will be installed by Jan De Nul Group, who will provide the vessel for the work which is expected to be carried out in 2025.

Jan De Nul has also secured a contract for the cable works on the 1 GW offshore wind farm through a joint venture with Hellenic Cables, with which RWE also just announced a contract for the 1.6 GW Nordseecluster offshore wind project in Germany.

For the Danish Thor offshore wind farm, Hellenic Cables and Jan De Nul will provide the entire cable package, including the manufacture and installation of 60 kilometres of export cables on the 30-kilometre-long cable route from the offshore wind farm to shore, and approximately 200 kilometres of inter-array cables.

Offshore installation and commissioning of the cable system are expected in 2025, with Jan De Nul to use the cable laying vessel (CLV) Connector for the project.

The joint venture will also manufacture and install the onshore cables from the landfall to the onshore substation, which will be built by Siemens Energy in the municipality of Lemvig. Siemens Energy will carry out the civil engineering and construction works together with MT Højgaard Danmark.

Construction activities for the onshore substation are expected to start in the next couple of weeks.

Furthermore, RWE last year selected HSM Offshore Energy for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of the offshore high-voltage substation and its jacket foundation.

Installation of the jacket foundation and substation topside is expected to take place in 2025, followed by the commissioning and testing of the offshore substation in 2026.

Sven Utermöhlen, CEO RWE Offshore Wind, said the developer selected the preferred suppliers and booked the necessary production slots for all main components based on an extensive procurement process. “This is an important step towards implementing this large-scale project – especially against the backdrop of the current market situation”, Sven Utermöhlen said.

RWE, through the project company Thor Wind Farm I/S, was announced as the winner of the Danish tender for the Thor offshore wind farm at the beginning of December 2021.

Once fully commissioned in 2027, the 1 GW project will become Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm and will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than one million Danish households, according to RWE.

Thor will be built in the Danish North Sea, approximately 22 kilometres from Thorsminde on the west coast of Jutland. For the operation and maintenance of the offshore wind farm, RWE will set up a service base at the Port of Thorsminde.