Ocean services provider DeepOcean has been hired by RWE for trenching, transport and installation of all inter-array cables with adjacent services for the offshore wind turbines of Nordseecluster A project, being built in Germany.
In August 2023, RWE announced that DeepOcean had been chosen as its preferred supplier of subsea installation services for the Nordseecluster A.
DeepOcean has now been awarded a firm order that will include preparatory work, transport and installations of all inter-array cables, including trenching, topside pull-ins and terminations for the initial build-out phase.
In total, DeepOcean will install 185 kilometres of 66kV aluminium and copper cables to connect all 44 offshore wind turbines of Nordseecluster A, utilizing three vessels for the project.
The firm order follows recent final investment decision made by RWE for its entire Nordseecluster, involving offshore wind projects with a total capacity of 1.6 GW. The Nordseecluster will be constructed in two phases: Nordseecluster A and Nordseecluster B. The wind farms will be built in the German North Sea, about 50 kilometres north of the island of Juist.
Nordseecluster A has a total capacity of 660 MW and the construction at sea is scheduled to begin next year.
By the beginning of 2027, all wind turbines are planned to be connected to the grid. The second phase, Nordseecluster B, will add a further 900 MW of capacity, with commercial operation expected to begin in early 2029.
DeepOcean’s scope of work also includes project management and engineering; offshore preparation work including pre-installation cable route survey, route engineering and burial assessment, boulder relocation, foundation preparatory work and offshore substation preparatory work; transport and installation of inter-array cables including burial, pull-in, monitoring and testing; as well as seabed surveys and monitoring.
The company’s offshore preparations and pre-installation surveys will start in the second quarter of 2025, with the main works commencing in the beginning of 2026.
“We look forward to mobilising a complete engineering, project management and execution team that will support RWE on this important offshore wind development which will contribute to the decarbonisation of European industry. RWE is one of the world’s leading players in offshore wind and this significant contract award will draw on a broad set of our expertise,” said Øyvind Mikaelsen, CEO of DeepOcean.