Vard has awarded Red Rock a contract to supply equipment for North Star Renewables’ three Service Operations Ships (SOVs) chartered for the Dogger Bank wind farm in the UK.
Red Rock will supply two 2T 3D motion compensated cranes, one 5T 3D motion compensated crane, three 2T boat landing cranes and three 1T shipboard cranes. The company will begin delivering the equipment in 2022 and the contract is expected to close in 2023.
The SOVs, which are chartered for a period of ten years with the option of three extensions of one year each, are being built by the Vard Vung Tau shipyard in Vietnam – to which Red Rock is supplying the cranes – and are being used by the operator of the Dogger Bank wind farm Equinor. passed in 2023.
One SOV will be in the VARD 4 19 design and the other two will be in the VARD 4 12 design.
The ship, due for delivery in January 2024, will be used for scheduled maintenance at Dogger Bank A and B and will also serve Dogger Bank C once it comes on stream. The other two SOVs – one scheduled for delivery in July 2023 and the other in July 2024 – will be used for corrective maintenance at Dogger Banks A and B.
Another contract for an SOV for corrective maintenance at Dogger Bank C will be signed at a later date.
The Dogger Bank will be built in three identical construction phases of 1.2 GW each and will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm after commissioning.
The first two phases, Dogger Bank A&B – a joint venture between Equinor, SSE Renewables and Eni – are expected to be operational by 2024. The third phase, Dogger Bank C, owned by Equinor and SSE Renewable, will be on a different timescale with the operation date for 2026.
