Consortium Sif-Smulders provides monopiles and TP’s for Dogger Bank Wind Farm

Sif Netherlands in a consortium with Smulders Projects Belgium will manufacture all monopiles and transition pieces (approx. 260 kton steel) for the Dogger Bank A & B Offshore Wind Farm project located in the North Sea off the North East coast of England.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm, a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Equinor, has awarded a Sif-Smulders consortium the contract for the fabrication and supply of all foundations for Dogger Bank A & B. The contract is subject to financial close which is foreseen late 2020.

The Dogger Bank Wind Farm is being developed in three phases – Dogger Bank A, Dogger Bank B and Dogger Bank C – located more than 130km from the Yorkshire coast. Collectively they will become the world’s largest offshore
wind farm. Each phase will have an installed generation capacity of 1.2GW and represents a multi- billion-pound investment. Combined, they will have an installed capacity of up to 3.6GW and will be capable of powering more than 4.5 million UK homes. Dogger Bank A and B will require 190 foundations. Water depths at Dogger Bank vary from 18 to 63 meters. Each foundation comprises a monopile and a transition piece.

In the project-specific Sif-Smulders consortium, Sif is responsible for the fabrication and supply of the monopiles and primary steel for the transition pieces, and for the marshalling of all foundation components at its Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam terminal (picture below). Smulders will manufacture the secondary steel and assemble, coat and test the fully equipped transition pieces. Production in the Smulders’ facilities in Poland and Belgium will begin in May 2021. The assembly, which will be done at the Hoboken facility, is scheduled to start in September 2021 and will take approximately 10 months.
The consortium is committed to include UK local content on the transition pieces for the projects in close cooperation with the Dogger Bank team.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm Project Director, Steve Wilson, said: “This tier one contract with the Sif Group and Smulders is the final one to be confirmed by Dogger Bank Wind Farm for the first two phases, and marks a significant milestone for the project. We look forward to working with the joint venture in a collaborative and innovative way, to manufacture the foundations that will support the world’s largest and most powerful wind turbines in operation, and which will provide renewable electricity to more than 4.5 million UK households.”

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding: “Dogger Bank Wind Farm joint venture partners SSE and Equinor are strong, experienced and reputable customers. Through our facility at MV2 we are well positioned to serve the Dogger Bank Wind Farm project and we look forward to a continuation of the excellent
relationship that dates back many years already. With this biggest award ever to Sif, the projects still in exclusive negotiation and the strong tender pipeline, Sif’s mid-term order pipeline is now looking very robust.”