Aibel has secured contracts to engineer and build two converter platforms for the Hornsea 3 offshore wind project in the UK North Sea with developer Ørsted.
The awards cover engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) for the delivery of two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter platforms for use at the wind farm.
The contract value was not specified, though Aibel said each platform represented a “major” award worth in excess of NOK 2.5 billion (£210 million).
The two platforms, Hornsea 3 Link 1 and 2, will be based on Aibel and Hitachi Energy’s design, used at a series of global offshore wind farms.
Aibel said the unmanned platforms will feature a “lean design” with a steel jacket structure, and a combined capacity of up to 2.852 gigawatts (GW), matching the generation capacity of the Hornsea 3 scheme.
Operated from shore, they will be accessed for maintenance by service operations vessels (SOVs) or helicopter.
Hornsea 3 is Ørsted’s third project in the Hornsea Zone, where Hornsea 1 is operational and Hornsea 2 currently is nearing operation.
“We are proud and honoured to enter into a new collaboration with Ørsted – a relationship that has matured over the last 36 months. With this award, we once again consolidate our position as a leading supplier of HVDC solutions in the European offshore wind segment,” said Aibel president and CEO, Mads Andersen.
Ørsted VP for programme UK, Patrick Harnett, added: “Together with Aibel, we are demonstrating that renewables like offshore wind are a huge part of the world’s sustainability journey. Hornsea 3 will not just provide low cost, clean energy for millions of homes in the UK, it will also deliver thousands of high-quality jobs and billions of pounds of investment in the offshore wind supply chain in the UK and beyond.”
Aibel is currently building four similar platforms for other offshore wind projects, including one for the Dolwin 5 project off the German coast, and three for the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in the UK.
The latest Hornsea 3 project will be managed from the company’s Oslo office, with topsides construction taking place at its yard in Thailand.
They will then be transported to Haugesund, north of Stavanger, some time in Q1 2025, where they will be outfitted with Hitachi Energy’s HVDC converter technology prior, to final completion and commissioning.
Forecast sailaway to the Hornsea site is in 2026.
“With the award of Hornsea 3, we accelerate our transformation towards renewables and low carbon solutions. Our order backlog now holds approx. 60% related to offshore wind and electrification of energy infrastructure. We are of course excited about this, and we look forward to work with Ørsted and deliver on our lean HVDC concept,” added Mr Andersen.
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