AMS Trenchless Specialists, North Lincolnshire-based engineering company, has won a huge contract for part of the onshore cable works for Hornsea Two, an offshore wind farm being constructed 89km off the Yorkshire Coast.
AMS Trenchless Specialists, based in Scunthorpe, will undertake Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), a method of installing ducting and cables beneath existing infrastructure without disruption, at the landfall site in Horseshoe Point where the offshore cables meet the onshore cables.
This contract builds on the existing relationship between the East-coast firm and Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, following previous works for Hornsea Two’s sister project, Hornsea One. Hornsea 2 has a capacity of 1.4GW.
Hornsea Two is in the early stages of construction, and when complete in 2022 it will be able to power well over 1.3 million homes, overtaking Hornsea One, due for completion next year, as the world’s biggest offshore wind farm.
Duncan Clark, project director for both Hornsea One and Two, said, “Lancashire-based VolkerInfra are installing the onshore cable, the onshore substation is being built by Balfour Beatty, and the fact that AMS Trenchless Specialists, who are based literally up the road from our onshore site, will be working with us again is a testament to their previous work on Hornsea One.”
Using Horizontal Directional Drilling means that the cable can be buried underground without using trenches or disrupting the existing sea defenses in the intertidal area, that links the offshore infrastructure with the onshore infrastructure.
The news follows publication of the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, a partnership between Government and industry setting out to achieve a third of our country’s electricity from offshore wind by 2030.
The UK already leads the world in offshore wind, and the recently announced Deal outlined plans for an Offshore Wind Growth Partnership, to increase productivity and competitiveness in the supply chain, and drive more UK content into offshore wind farms both for projects in the UK and abroad.