Dutch Marine Engineers Van Oord to Establish Tyne Base

24th March 2023

Royal Van Oord’s flagship wind installation vessel Aeolus will be stationed at the Tyne from January 2024, making regular trips to the Sofia Wind Farm at Dogger Bank.

*Aeolus’* massive crane can lift 1,600 tonnes.

The Sofia Wind farm is operated by German wind energy giant RWE and with 100 x 250m-tall turbines represents their largest project to date. Van Oord will be responsible for constructing and piling the foundations for these turbines and securing them to the sea bed. As well as this, they will connect hundreds of kilometres of array cables to the AC-DC converter platform.

High Voltage. Map of the Sofia Wind Farm

Van Oord will be based at the Port of Tyne’s ‘Clean Energy Park’ at Tyne Dock and will join the Dogger Bank Wind Farm’s maintenance fleet in operating out of the Park.

It’s heartening to see more industry based on the river, while guaranteeing renewable energy for millions of homes. This is clearly a win-win scenario and also adds to the UK’s push to meet its climate change commitments by 2030.