Jan De Nul’s Voltaire Installs First Offshore Wind Turbine at Dogger Bank – First Power Confirmed Today
Jan De Nul Group’s newest jack-up installation vessel Voltaire recently installed her very first offshore wind turbine at Dogger Bank. Soon after installing the first of 277 wind turbines, this first turbine has produced first power.
The installation and first power of the first at Dogger Bank A was confirmed today. The precision exercise to install the turbine was undertaken by engineers and technicians using Jan De Nul Group’s ultra-low emission vessel Voltaire, which has a crane lifting capacity of 3,200t. The turbine blades tips reach 260m above sea level; the same height as New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. Each blade is 107m long.
Project Director for Dogger Bank, Olly Cass said: “The installation of the first turbine at Dogger Bank A is an important moment for our workforce, our suppliers and of course our project partners on the path to first power which will be a landmark moment as we start to generate electricity for the first time. Dogger Bank is a major infrastructure project which is benefitting the economy as well as supporting the UK’s future energy security and making a major contribution to the UK’s ambitious Net Zero targets.”
Manager Jan De Nul Offshore Renewables at Jan De Nul Group, Jan Van Impe added: “Our Voltaire has proven that the scale and characteristics of the Dogger Bank offshore turbines offer the perfect challenge for this next generation state-of-the art jack-up installation vessel. We are excited to have installed the very first offshore GE Haliade-X turbine on the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in a sustainable and efficient way, and we are looking forward to continuing this mission with industry leaders SSE Renewables, Equinor and Vårgrønn to further construct the energy transition for the UK energy market.”
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today, 10 October 2023:
The world’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, Dogger Bank, has started producing electricity for the first time for British homes and businesses, marking a major milestone in the development of the offshore wind industry and the transition to a cleaner, more secure energy system.
The 3.6GW Dogger Bank Wind Farm is being constructed in UK waters 70 nautical miles (130km) off the coast of Yorkshire and in three 1.2GW phases known as Dogger Bank A, B and C. Power from the project’s first offshore wind turbine at Dogger Bank A is now being transmitted to the UK’s national grid via Dogger Bank’s high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system, marking the first-time use of HVDC technology on a UK wind farm.
First power followed the installation of the first of GE Vernova’s ground-breaking Haliade-X 13MW turbines, one of the largest and most powerful globally, at the Dogger Bank site. This is the first time Haliade-X units have been energised offshore anywhere in the world.
Each rotation of the 107m long blades on Dogger Bank’s first operational turbine can produce enough clean energy to power an average British home for two days.
When fully complete, Dogger Bank’s world-record-beating 3.6GW capacity will comprise 277 giant offshore turbines capable of producing enough clean energy to power the equivalent of six million homes annually and deliver yearly CO2 savings equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from the road.