Offshore Wind Projects and Vessel News

Clarksons Renewables Newsletter

Week 31

Cadeler has signed an agreement with Orsted to transport and install turbine foundations at the UK’s Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm.?The deal, subject to Orsted’s final investment decision, includes a further mutual commitment to developing the vessel hire agreement into a transportation and installation contract for the entire foundation scope. For the installation of the foundations, Cadeler will use its F-class foundation vessel, which is now being built especially for this type of mission by Chinese COSCO Heavy Industries. The 2.8 GW Hornsea 3 is situated in the North Sea, approximately 120 kilometres off the Norfolk coast and 160 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast. It was recently successful in the UK’s fourth contract for difference auction, securing a strike price of GBP 37.35 per MWh. The installation of the farm’s more than 200 turbines is expected to start in the second quarter of 2026 with a suggested running time of Cadeler’s contract of two years.

Avangrid has received a contract for the operations and maintenance and asset management of Vineyard Wind 1.?The 800 MW wind farm is located approximately 24 kilometres off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and is the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the US, currently under construction. The farm is a 50-50 joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners funds CI II and III and will feature 62 Haliade-X 13 MW turbines. It will deliver its first power to the grid in 2023 and have commercial operations in 2024. In addition to Vineyard Wind 1, Avangrid owns 100% of the 804 MW Park City Wind off Connecticut, the 2.5 GW Kitty Hawk Wind off North Carolina, and the 1.2 GW Commonwealth Wind off Massachusetts.

Hexicon has decided to increase its direct ownership in the MunmuBaram floating wind project off the southeast coast of South Korea to 20%.?Hexicon owns 49% of the joint venture Hexicon Korea with Coens & Co, and the joint venture owns 20% of MunmuBaram Co., Ltd. This means that Hexicon has just below ten per cent of direct ownership in the project before the transaction. Hexicon is now buying 20% of MunmuBaram Co., Ltd., with the other 80% owned by Shell Overseas Investments B.V. The 1.3 GW wind project is located 65 – 80 kilometres from the city of Ulsan and will be developed in phases when the future investment decisions are made. The water depths in the area are between 120 and 160 metres, making the project well suitable for floating wind.

Through a joint venture with GLIL Infrastructure, Octopus Energy Generation has acquired a 12.5% stake in the 1.2 GW Hornsea One offshore wind farm from Global Infrastructure Partners.?The joint venture is paying GBP 400 million, split on a GBP 200 million investment from GLIL and a GBP 200 million investment that Octopus Energy Generation has made on behalf of Nest. The acquisition is expected to be finished by October 2022. The Hornsea One offshore wind farm is situated in the North Sea off the English coast and is the world’s largest farm to date. It has been operating since January 2020 and was developed by Orsted. The farm features 174 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW wind turbines, and it has an inflation-linked contract for difference with 13 years remaining.

Kent has been awarded a contract to provide concept designs for the offshore substations and foundations for both wind turbines and the substations at SSE Renewables’ 4.1 GW Berwick Bank offshore wind farm.?The farm is located 40 kilometres off the coast of Scotland and has been under development for ten years, initially as the two projects Berwick Bank at 2.3 GW and Marr Bank at 1.85 GW. The progress of the farms has been made difficult by local seabird populations and benthic and shellfish ecology, in addition to general fishing, shipping and navigation activities.

Wood has been contracted to take on the Principal Designer and Pre-FEED (front-end engineering design) scope of work on the Salamander floating offshore wind project.?In addition, Wood’s scope will include wind turbine generator OEM engagement, collation of site data, ports, transport and installation analysis, and O&M strategy certification. The 100 MW Salamander farm will be located 35 kilometres off Peterhead on the east coast of Scotland and is developed by the joint venture between Simply Blue Group, Orsted and Subsea 7.

Heerema Marine Contractors’ vessel Sleipnir has started installing gravity-based foundations at France's 500 MW Fécamp offshore wind farm.?On 29 July, the Port of Le Havre announced that the first three foundations set sail for the farm, and the first installation was completed on 1 August. At first, the instalment was planned to be undertaken by Saipem 7000, but the vessel is still working on Seagreen 1 offshore wind project in Scotland. A total of 71 foundations will leave the Bougainville yard to be installed. They weigh 5,000 tons, are 31 metres in diameter at the base, and have a height of 48 – 54 metres installed at water depths of 25- 30 metres. The Fécamp offshore wind farm will feature 71 Siemens Gamesa SWT-7.0-154 wind turbines. The farm is being developed by Eolien Maritime France, a joint venture between EDF Renouvelables, wpd offshore, and EIH S.à.rl, the latter owned by Enbridge Inc. and CPP Investments. The farm is located between 13 and 22 kilometres from the coast at Port of Fécamp and will be fully operational next year.

Ampelmann’s E5000 motion compensated gangway will be fitted on Volstad Maritime’s offshore construction vessel Deep Cygnus.?The gangway will assist the cabling and commissioning operations at the Saint-Brieuc wind farm offshore France. It has a personnel and cargo transfer capacity of up to five tonnes and is suitable for use in high sea states. The 28-metre-long E5000 is based on E-type technology, allowing to switch between personnel and cargo mode in less than a minute. The installation on the vessel will happen in early September this year for a duration of between 50 and 180 days. It will be the first entry of E5000 in France and is Ampelmann’s second major contract in the French renewable sector since 2021. According to Ampelmann, the entrance of the gangway comes at an opportune moment as France is heading for 50 GW by 2050. The 496MW Saint-Brieuc farm is situated in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, 16.3 kilometres from the Breton coast. It will be operational next year.

Osbit has completed its first project for Shimizu Corporation, where the company delivered a bespoke access system for Shimizu Corporation’s newbuild offshore jack-up vessel.?The variable height gangway will be permanently installed on the ship and has a maximum length of 45 metres and can luff from -30 to +45 degrees and slew through 330 degrees. The gangway was designed at Osbit’s Riding Mill office in the UK and manufactured by Alucor in UAE, and the project was completed in 38 weeks. It has now been transported from UAE to Japan, where the vessel will be mobilised. The 142 metres jack-up is being built by Japan Marine United Corporation and will be delivered in late 2022. It is the first vessel for the offshore wind market that is being made in Japan, and it is designed to handle turbines with a capacity of 8 MW or more. GustoMSC is delivering the jacking system and crane, with 2,500 tonnes lifting capacity and a maximum lifting height of 158 metres.

According to the shipbuilder Strategic Marine, Manor Renewable Energy’s two StratCat 27 crew transfer vessels (CTVs) have passed sea trials.?The CTVs were ordered a few months ago and will support offshore operations in Europe and Asia. The 27-metre-long vessels can accommodate up to 30 passengers and are designed in collaboration with BMT. During trials, the ship exceeded expectations in performance with 0.5 knots and a two per cent speed increase, compared with the StratCat 26 design featuring the same fixed pitch propeller propulsion system. The new vessels reduce fuel burn and greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent at the same speed, and they also have hybrid drive options. Moreover, they have a 15% increase in bollard push due to hull form and propeller efficiency and a 30% increased internal volume. The vessels will be the first in the builder’s new StratCat 27 range.

Mainprize Offshore’s vessel MO2 is now OS-HSC certified after an extensive upgrade.?After the upgrade, the vessel can carry twelve people, twelve industrial personnel, and a crew. The ship has been working on Butendiek offshore wind farm for OWP Butendiek GmbH & Co KG since 2017 as a workboat for up to twelve people.

Geoquip Marine has added the specialist deep push cone penetration testing (CPT) vessel Geoquip Elena, to its fleet.?The ship is 91 meters long and has a breadth of 19 metres, and it was built at Vard Brattvaag in 2002. The rig can push to depths more than 40 metres, which is ideal for data gathering for foundation construction at offshore wind farms. Geoquip Elana will join five other DP2 in Geoquip Marine’s fleet and four-point moored vessels. The vessel will add capacity to the European and North American offshore wind market.

The Global offshore wind investments raised to USD 32 million in the first half year of 2022, a 52% increase compared to last year, despite supply chain issues and rising financing costs.?The financing of the 1 GW China Three Gorges Yangjiang Yangxi Shapa Qingzhouwu offshore wind farm for USD 2.1 billion was the largest deal in the period. The governmental efforts to up the share of renewable energy in the national energy mixes have contributed to the increased investments, as many countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, have raised their targets during the period. The investments will flow into online projects over the next few years, supporting the projected growth of offshore wind from 53 GW in 2021 to 504 GW in 2035. According to Bloomberg, the global energy crisis will accelerate the clean energy transition as we advance.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has raised the state’s non-binding floating offshore wind goals from 3 GW to an upper range of 5 GW in 2030 and from 20 GW to 25 GW in 2045.?The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated that California has one of the nation’s top wind resources, with 200 GW of technical potential. The 2030 goal’s compliance depends on the built-out of the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area and Humboldt Wind Energy Area. The former is off central California and contains three lease areas up for auction, while the latter is off northern California and includes two sites. These can accommodate a total of 4.5 GW installed offshore wind capacity, expected to come exclusively from the floating wind as this is most suitable for the US pacific coast. The lease auction is now ongoing and has already attracted 23 qualified bidders, such as Equinor, RWE, Shell New Energies, and Total. CEC has a meeting on 10 August, where the targets will be formally submitted to the California state legislature and the California Natural Resources Agency. The state has a law calling for 60% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2045.

The Greece government has approved its first offshore wind law, including a target of 2 GW by 2030 and plans to identify potential areas for development and future tenders.?The law appoints state-owned Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources & Energy Resources Management to lead site investigation and allocation and concession development, while ADMIE will provide grid links. The ministry of environment and energy will commission environmental impact assessments to define development areas. Developers can apply for non-exclusive research permits for the sites, with the first round of applications expected within the next two years. These developers will later be able to bid in auctions around 2025-2026 for a so-called sliding feed-in premium revenue stabilisation scheme, similar to a contract for difference. The first offshore wind projects are expected to be online around 2030. Most of the targeted capacity is likely to come from floating wind, as the Greek part of the Mediterranean Sea has large water depths.

Contacts

Research

Jens Egenberg ?+47 92 02 01 70

Amanda Berland ?+47 47 66 81 57

Oslo

Frederik Colban-Andersen ?+47 91 82 28 04

Anders C. Hagen ?+47 91 80 07 61

Vegard Volls?ter ?+47 92 68 48 55

Espen Bj?rnson ?+47 90 94 44 39

Hamburg

Rouven C. Willner ?+49 174 933 0093

Tim?B?rner ?+49 173 631 4996

Henning Leverkus ?+49 172 589 3520

David Matthews? +44 790 095 6539

Aarhus

Gabriel Andersen ?+45 81 95 95 43

London

Neil Buchan ?+44 77 7139 5479

Mikkel Nielsen ??+44?77 4704 3014

Aberdeen

James Braid ?+44 780 840 3790?

Chris Tweedie ?+44 773 606 6412

Houston

Jack Fitzgerald ?+1 713 235 7469

Shanghai

Jack Qiu: ?+86 13 8117 88836

Singapore

Tilly Manley: ?+65 9665 1034

?