Vattenfall has signed a deal with EMS Maritime Offshore (EMO) to establish an operations and maintenance (O&M) base in the Dutch port of Eemshaven to support construction and operation of its planned Nordlicht 1 and 2 wind farms, which will become Germany’s largest offshore wind project.
The site will provide direct access for service operation vessels (SOVs) and crew transfer vessels (CTVs), reducing travel times to the German North Sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Vattenfall said shorter routes will cut fuel use and emissions while improving efficiency and safety.
EMO plans to start construction of the operations building later in 2025. The project will include warehouse and workshop areas, outdoor storage space, as well as limited office space.
Vattenfall will lease the building on a long-term basis, with completion scheduled for October 2026.
In addition, EMO will support regular port calls under a parallel service contract, handling SOVs with various services. Smaller CTV units will be serviced via EMO’s own floating jetty on its premises.
Construction of the Nordlicht 1 project will begin in 2026, with commissioning of the first turbines of the wind farm scheduled for autumn 2027. Full operations are expected to begin in 2028.
In 2024, contracts had already been awarded to Vestas for the supply of state-of-the-art wind turbines, to Havfram for low-carbon transport and installation services, and to TKF for the delivery of inter-array cables.
“The new operations base in Eemshaven is an important component to ensure that Nordlicht can be commissioned efficiently and in a climate-friendly manner thanks to shorter travel times,” said Cyril Moss, Project Director for Nordlicht at Vattenfall.
“We are very pleased to have gained Vattenfall as another major offshore partner for our site in Eemshaven. This enables us to make an important contribution to the energy transition by sustainably securing and further strengthening the relevant services in the logistics chain,” added Managing Director Marcel Diekmann.