RWE has selected Norwegian ocean services provider DeepOcean as a preferred supplier of subsea installation services for the Nordseecluster A wind development offshore Germany.
DeepOcean is responsible for preparatory work, transport, and installations of all inter-array cables, including trenching, topside pull-ins and terminations for the initial build-out phase.
It will install 185km of 66kV aluminium and copper cables and will begin with connecting all 44 offshore wind turbines of Nordseecluster A.
The scope of work includes project management and engineering, offshore preparation work transport and installation of inter-array cables, along with seabed surveys and monitoring.
It includes foundation and offshore substation preparatory works, pre-installation cable route survey, route engineering and burial assessment, offshore trenching, and boulder relocation.
DeepOcean offshore renewables director Normann Vikse said: “We have supported RWE in the past and we will apply decades of experience from similar subsea work to deliver the Nordseecluster in-line with RWE’s high-quality requirements.
“We will take charge of a large work scope, which will allow us to secure the best possible project design and exploit operational synergies and costs-efficiencies between the various work packages.”
DeepOcean intends to mobilise a complete engineering, project management and planning team that will support RWE, subject to completion of FID.
In addition, the ocean services provider will deploy an installation vessel, and trenching vessel and walk to the work vessel to deliver the offshore work.
The offshore installation work for Nordseecluster A is expected to be executed in 2026.
DeepOcean CEO Øyvind Mikaelsen said: “We are very excited about supporting RWE’s plans for the Nordseecluster, where the merger of the four sites offers attractive economies of scale and allows the supply chain to reliably plan and leverage synergies.
“Awarding the contract for the initial phase with the opportunity to provide our services for Nordseecluster B will allow us to significantly reduce project execution risk. This is a risk-reducing measure that will benefit both RWE and us suppliers.”
Nordseecluster is a 1.6GW wind farm project located around 50km north of the island of Juist in the German North Sea and features at least 104 wind turbines.
It is planned to be constructed in two phases, Nordseecluster A and Nordseecluster B.
Nordseecluster A comprises two sites, N-3.7 and N-3.8, with a combined capacity of 660MW and Nordseecluster B includes the N-3.5 and N-3.6 sites, with 900MW capacity.
Once all the four wind farms become operational, in early 2029, the offshore wind project would produce adequate green electricity to power 1.6 million German households.
Nordseecluster managing director Sven Schulemann said: “We are delighted to have signed with DeepOcean as the last main supplier to install the cables for Nordseecluster A.
“This is a further important step towards implementing this large-scale project. We are confirmed that DeepOcean is the right partner for us.”
