Turkey’s Cemre Shipyard has bid farewell to the service operations vessel (SOV) Wind of Hope.
Ordered by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA), Wind of Hope’s first assignment will be on Ørsted’s 1.4 GW Hornsea Two off the UK, which will be the world’s largest wind farm once completed.
The vessel will operate from Ørsted’s operations and maintenance (O&M) facility at the port of Grimsby and serve as an accommodation and working base for wind turbine technicians who will spend two weeks at a time at Hornsea Two.
The 84-metre SOV, which can accommodate up to 64 wind turbine technicians and a vessel crew, has a diesel-electric propulsion and DP2 capabilities. It has been fitted out with a motion compensated gangway and an onboard helideck for crew and cargo transfers.
This is the second SOV which Ørsted chartered from LDA.
In 2018, LDA launched the Wind of Change SOV, a 83-metre long vessel used for O&M work at Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 1 & 2 and Gode Wind 1 & 2 offshore wind farms in Germany.
Wind of Change, also built by Cemre Shipyard in Turkey, started operating at the German offshore wind farms in 2019.
Both vessels were designed by Salt Ship Design.
Hornsea Two will comprise 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines and is scheduled to be commissioned in 2022.