The first of two offshore converter station topsides, planned to be installed at the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm in the UK, is on its way to Europe following the sailway from Map Ta Phut, Thailand.
The topside, completed by Ørsted’s Thailand-based team in partnership with Aibel and Hitachi Energy, is now on a 55-day journey of more than 13,000 nautical miles to Haugesund, Norway, for the installation and commissioning of high-voltage equipment.
The structure will travel on the heavy transportation vessel BigLift Barentsz .
“The sailaway of the first of our Hornsea 3 offshore converter station topsides is an important milestone. It marks the culmination of three years of hard work by our teams in Europe and Thailand, and the start of our next phase in delivering the world’s single biggest offshore wind farm. This huge structure is an impressive piece of engineering, which so far has been completed safely, efficiently, on time and on budget,” said Luke Bridgman , Managing Director of Hornsea 3.
Ørsted signed the contract to provide offshore converter stations with Aibel and Hitachi Energy in 2022.
Under the contract, Aibel is responsible for engineering, procurement, construction, and installation in the delivery of two HVDC converter platforms. Hitachi Energy will supply two HVDC Light converter systems, while Aibel will deliver two HVDC offshore converter platforms.
Aibel contracted Heerema Marine Contractors to transport and install the two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore converter platforms, including both jackets and platform topsides.
Ørsted was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) for Hornsea 3 in July 2022, with the developer saying that with an installed capacity of 2.9 GW, Hornsea 3 was the largest single offshore wind farm in the world.
In 2023, when Ørsted took the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the offshore wind farm, the company noted that the CfD framework permitted a reduction of the awarded capacity and that Ørsted would use this flexibility to submit a share of Hornsea 3’s capacity into the UK’s CfD allocation round 6 (AR6).
Hornsea 3, located approximately 160 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast, was awarded 1,080 MW capacity in the UK’s AR6 auction in September 2024.
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