Van Oord adds Asso.subsea to Sofia team

Asso.subsea has signed a contract with the balance of plant contractor Van Oord to provide boulder clearance and pre-trenching services along the inter-array cable routes of the Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK.

The Sofia offshore wind farm is located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea, approximately 195 kilometres off the UK’s northeast coast. Owned and developed by RWE, the wind farm will consist of 100 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW wind turbine generators.

Asso.subsea will utilize its new DP3 Trenching Support Vessel, Athena, for the boulder clearance and pre-trenching operations along more than 80 kilometres of inter-array cable routes. In addition, the AssoGrapple II ROV boulder grab will be mobilized for removing individual boulders.

The marine operations are scheduled to be executed between the second and the third quarter of 2023.

”We are delighted to partner with Van Oord for the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm project. The unrivalled experience accumulated by Asso.subsea in seabed preparation operations will certainly be an added value for the project,” Angelos Tziotakis, Director of the Technical Division of Asso.subsea, said.

Van Oord is the EPCI contractor for the inter-array cables and monopile foundations on the Sofia offshore wind project under a contract won at the beginning of 2021.

Earlier this year, Van Oord picked Hellenic Cables for the supply of 66 kV inter-array cables and accessories for the offshore wind farm.

The installation of the inter-array cables is set to begin in 2024 from the Port of Blyth and will be carried out by Van Oord’s cable-laying vessel Nexus.

Sofia is scheduled to become fully operational in 2026.