Dogger Bank Wind Farm will generate clean energy for 6 million homes once completed and fully operational.
The project is being developed in three phases, Dogger Bank A, B and C, located between 130 km and 190 km off the north-east coast of England. Each of these phases will have an installed generating capacity of 1.2 GW and has involved an investment of billions of pounds. Combined, they will have an installed capacity of 3.6 GW.
Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental solutions, is taking part in the project by providing heavy lift expertise for phase C of the wind farm, which has a development area of some 560 km2 and is 196 km offshore. The connection will be made at the existing Lackenby substation on Teesside.
On this occasion, Sarens engineers were entrusted with the lifting of the stackable modules, for which they selected an equipment of 2 crawler crane units with a lifting capacity of 600 tons, another crawler crane unit of 250 tons and a last crawler crane unit with a lifting capacity of 150 tons. These units are complemented by a 50T mobile crane, a forklift and a cherry picker. This equipment will remain on site for approximately one year, after its arrival in June 2023 and is expected to perform various heavy lifting tasks until at least June 2024.
In order to carry out the project as safely and efficiently as possible, Sarens team will perform the necessary calculations providing all relevant forecasting, and the engineering for each lift will be presented to the client prior to execution for review and possible modification. Although this kind of operation may slow down the processes slightly, it is done primarily to ensure that all safety measures taken for lifting objects are carried out, as well as providing an alternative solution that saves operating time.
For this project Sarens has deployed a team of experts consisting of a Safety Officer, five crane operators, five riggers, one cherry picker operator, one engineer and one supervisor. The main challenge they encountered is the crane movement on site on the steel mats after lifting the loads, as the area is widely spread.
First power generation for Dogger Bank C is expected in 2025, while the wind farm will be fully operational in 2026. The Dogger Bank C phase of the wind farm will have an estimated lifetime of around 35 years of clean energy generation.
Sarens owns an extensive international experience in the assembly and maintenance of wind farms. It is participating in installations in France such as Fécamp, Saint Nazaire, Provence Grand Large or more recently, in the lifting and transport work for the foundation bases of the new offshore wind farm in Saint Brieuc, off the Brittany coast, where it has been able to transport loads of more than 1,150 tons.
Regarding the transport and installation of electrical substations for offshore wind farms, Sarens also has proven experience, as it was responsible for the logistical manoeuvres required for the transport of a 2,922-ton substation in the port of Hoboken, in Antwerp (Belgium) to the Racebank wind farm, off Norfolk’s coast.
