Van Oord has successfully installed all monopile foundations at the RWE Sofia Offshore Wind Farm using its offshore wind installation vessel Aeolus, according to the company's release.
Located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea, the 1.4 GW wind farm will supply renewable energy for approximately 1.2 million UK households. Van Oord is also progressing with the installation and burial of roughly 360 km of array cables. Commissioning is scheduled for 2026.
RWE awarded Van Oord an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract in December 2020. Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel Aeolus commenced the monopile phase in May 2024, from a logistics base in the UK’s Port of Tyne.
RWE is a major German energy group and the world’s second-largest offshore wind developer. It operates about 10 offshore wind farms in the UK, with a target to triple global offshore capacity to 10 GW by 2030. The Sofia project, spanning 1.4 GW, is its largest under construction and is expected to power around 1.2 million UK homes.
Van Oord is a Dutch, family-owned marine contractor with around 150 years of experience in dredging and offshore energy. The company specialises in high-capacity vessels and engineering services for offshore foundations and cable installations. It has completed projects including Rampion, Humber Gateway, Robin Rigg and London Array before Sofia.