Heerema Marine Contractors has completed one of the largest lifts in offshore history, with its Sleipnir vessel lifting a major component for a UK wind farm.
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A 13,000 tonne offshore converter platform (OCP), understood to be the largest of its kind in the world, has been successfully installed at the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, off the north east coast of the United Kingdom.
Heerema Marine Contractors’ semi-submersible crane vessel Sleipnir lifted the 13,000 tonne topside with its two cranes for the project, run by global energy company RWE Offshore Wind.
The OCP is situated at the heart of the offshore wind farm. Its successful installation marks a key milestone for keeping the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm on track for full operation in 2026.
Sleipnir lifted the OCP – equivalent in height to an 11-story building and weighing over 13,000 tonnes – onto a pre-installed jacket structure.
The jacket structure, a welded tubular space frame, includes supports for conductors, risers as well as the topside itself.
The OCP was built by American energy equipment manufacturer GE Vernova at a site owned by Singapore-based Seatrium, before it was shipped to Europe by the GPO Sapphire vessel operated by GPO HeavyLift.
The 1.4 gigawatt (GW) Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, sited on the shallow central area of the North Sea known as Dogger Bank, is the largest offshore wind project in RWE’s current portfolio.
Now securely in place, the OCP will play a crucial role in converting the electricity generated by the wind turbines and transmitting it via a high voltage direct current export cable, to landfall 220 kilometres away in Redcar, Teesside.