Van Oord, using its jack-up vessel Aeolus, has installed 34 of the total 100 monopiles at the Sofia offshore wind farm site in the UK, according to a Notice to Mariners issued on 29 October.

Aeolus installed the first monopile at the Sofia project site, located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea, in May this year.

In October, Van Oord deployed its new cable-laying vessel (CLV) Calypso^[1] offshore the UK to install approximately 360 kilometres of inter-array cables for the same project.

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The company is responsible for the installation of the monopile foundations and inter-array cables under an Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Installation (EPCI) contract^[2] signed with the Sofia developer RWE in 2021. 

The monopiles for the offshore wind farm are being delivered by EEW Special Pipe Constructions under a contract with Van Oord from 2023.

The monopiles have a diameter of up to 8.8 metres, a length of up to 92 metres, and weigh up to 1,530 tonnes.

According to information about the monopile installation campaign shared earlier, the total duration of this part of the work at the Sofia site will depend on sea conditions but all 100 monopiles are expected to be installed by spring 2025.

The Sofia offshore wind farm will comprise 100 Siemens Gamesa 14-222 DD wind turbines, 44 of which will be equipped with recyclable blades^[3].

The 1.4 GW offshore wind project is expected to be commissioned in 2026 when it will be capable of generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of 1.2 million UK homes.

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