Van Oord has finished the laying, burial, termination, and testing of 109 array cables at the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm. The project marked the first operational use of the cable-laying vessel Calypso, which was purpose-built for offshore wind developments.
More than 360 kilometres of cables were buried using the Dig-It trencher, deployed from the Subsea Viking. Cable termination and testing were carried out from several walk-to-work vessels.
The Sofia Offshore Wind Farm is located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea, 195 kilometres off the north-east coast of the UK. With a planned capacity of 1.4 GW, it is expected to supply electricity to 1.2 million UK households. Van Oord is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the foundations and array cables. The wind farm is scheduled to be fully operational in 2026.
