Photo: Dogger Bank Wind Farm

Project Details:

• The Dogger Bank Wind Farm is located 130 km off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea.
• The project is being developed in three phases—Dogger Bank A, B, and C—each with an installed generation capacity of 1.2 GW.
• The project’s 277 offshore turbines and 3.6 GW of capacity are enough to power the equivalent of six million British homes annually.
• The wind farm is a joint venture partnership between SSE Renewables, Equinor, and Vårgrønn, with Equinor set to operate the farm throughout its projected life of around 35 years.

Milestones:

• Dogger Bank A produced its first electricity in October 2023.
• It is the first HVDC-connected offshore wind farm in the UK.
• This project features the first Haliade-X turbines from GE to generate energy offshore anywhere in the world. 
• Dogger Bank B is expected to be fully operational in 2025, and Dogger Bank C in 2026.

Below, we take a look at the listed companies involved in this project, from the early geophysical surveys through to grid connection. We consider only Dogger Bank phases A, B, and C.

In February 2024, Equinor and SSE Renewables announced that they are carrying out early scoping work to explore options for developing a fourth phase, Dogger Bank D. Equinor and SSE Renewables each own 50% of the proposed Dogger Bank D development.

Dogger Bank South (DBS) is a separate 3 GW project owned by RWE (51%) and Masdar (49%). This project has not yet started and is not covered in this post.

Photo: Dogger Bank Wind Farm. Illustrative.

Equinor owns 40% of Dogger Bank A, B, and C, and 50% of Dogger Bank D.

Equinor aims to achieve an installed net capacity of 12-16 GW of renewable energy by 2030, with two-thirds of this capacity generated from offshore wind.

As the lead operator during the operational phase of the wind farm, Equinor is responsible for maintaining and operating Dogger Bank throughout its anticipated 35-year lifespan.

A study funded by the Norwegian government indicates that Dogger Bank might not meet Equinor’s profitability criteria. The study, which assessed the project’s rate of return, concluded that Dogger Bank’s expected net present value to Equinor is negative, raising doubts about the venture’s financial viability.

Although Equinor has not contested the study’s findings, it has emphasized the strategic advantages of selling stakes in the project to partners such as Eni.

SSE Renewables, a division of SSE PLC, owns 40% of Dogger Bank A, B, and C and 50% of Dogger Bank D.

SSE Renewables aims to double its installed renewable energy capacity from approximately 4 GW today to 9 GW by March 2027 and surpass 16 GW by 2032.

SSE’s ownership of Dogger Bank A, B, and C constitutes more than 50% of SSE Renewables’ 2.8 GW pipeline of renewable projects under construction. The overall pipeline exceeds 13GW when considering projects still in earlier phases.

SSE Renewables had an operating profit of £580.0 million in 2023, representing 23% of SSE’s overall group profit. Renewables accounts for 40% of SSE’s £18 billion in planned capex through 2027.

Vårgrønn is a joint venture between Eni Plenitude and HitecVision, with a focus on developing, constructing, operating, and owning offshore wind energy and infrastructure in Northern Europe.

The company aims to achieve 5 GW of installed and sanctioned offshore wind capacity by 2030.

Vårgrønn’s 20% ownership stakes in Dogger Bank A, B, and C contribute 720 MW of renewable capacity to its portfolio.

Photo: NKT

In October 2023, NKT announced the successful production and installation of the turnkey HVDC power cable system for the offshore wind park Dogger Bank A.

NKT has designed, manufactured, and installed the onshore HVAC (high-voltage alternating current) and on- and offshore HVDC (high-voltage direct current) power cable systems for Dogger Bank A. Additionally, NKT serves as the export cable supplier for the upcoming phases Dogger Bank B and C.

The power cables for Dogger Bank A were manufactured at the NKT factory in Karlskrona, Sweden, which operates on 100% renewable electricity, significantly reducing the carbon footprint associated with the cable system.

The installation of the submarine power cable systems was completed by NKT Victoria.

ABB will supply a total of 95 PCS6000 medium voltage converters to be installed in GE’s Haliade-X 13-megawatt wind turbines. These converters will take the power produced by GE’s wind turbines and convert it to the right voltage and frequency for the wind farm grid.

The 95-unit order was ABB’s largest order to date for medium voltage converters for wind turbines when announced in 2021. The PCS6000 converters will be manufactured by ABB in Łódź, Poland, while the project engineering is led by ABB in Turgi, Switzerland 

“The selection of the right converter is critical to achieve the performance and reliability that yields the maximum return on investment. And medium voltage converters are the optimum choice for today’s high-power wind turbines,”

-Chris Poynter, Division President for System Drives, ABB Motion

Currently, there are more than 250 PCS6000 units operating in the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and off the coasts of China. ABB has supplied over 15,000 low voltage converters to the wind industry.

Cenergy Holdings, founded in 2016, is listed on Euronext Brussels and the Athens Stock Exchange. Its portfolio consists of two companies:

1. Corinth Pipeworks: A steel pipe manufacturer.
2. Hellenic Cables: A cable manufacturer.

Hellenic Cables is the sole inter-array cable provider for all three phases of the Dogger Bank project. This includes 650 kilometers of array cables for phases A & B, and 240 kilometers for phase C.

Hitachi Energy’s involvement centers around the supply of its pioneering HVDC Light® technology. This high-voltage direct current system connects the offshore wind farm to the mainland transmission network at Teesside and Creyke Beck.

Hitachi Energy’s total scope of supply includes the design, engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of six converter stations: three onshore and three offshore. Aibel AS, with whom Hitachi Energy has a strategic partnership on offshore wind connections, will provide the three offshore platforms which will house the HVDC equipment.

The Dogger Bank HVDC project is an early example of a new business model in the HVDC industry, where orders are placed for multiple, similar HVDC systems. This new approach allows Hitachi Energy to plan in advance to increase manufacturing capacity, expand and train the workforce, and maximize standardization to increase synergies between successive projects. –Hitachi Statement

Low-Carbon Copper from Boliden AB will be used in the high-voltage offshore export cable systems for Dogger Bank C. This will reduce the CO₂ footprint of Dogger Bank C by 23,000 tons of CO₂, according to Boliden. The company describes the path from ore to cable:

Initially, the copper comes from ore mining in Aitik, Gällivare, one of Europe’s largest and world’s most productive open-pit copper mines with a high degree of electrification. The copper cathodes are then produced in Rönnskär in Skellefteå and delivered to Elcowire, Northern Europe’s leading provider of copper solutions, with train to Helsingborg to produce copper rods. The copper rods is then delivered to NKT, pioneers in the cable industry, in Karlskrona to deliver the cables to Dogger Bank offshore wind farm.

In total, Dogger Bank will feature 277 of the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbines – GE’s Haliade-X.

• 190 GE Haliade-X 13 MW turbines will be installed for Dogger Bank A and B. The first power was produced at Dogger Bank A in October 2023. These are the first Haliade-X turbines to generate energy offshore anywhere in the world.
• Each rotation of the first turbine’s 107-meter-long Haliade-X blades can produce enough clean energy to power an average home for two days.
• Dogger Bank C will utilize 87 Haliade-X 14 MW turbines. The installation of GE’s upscaled Haliade-X 14 MW turbine at Dogger Bank C will mark the first time the 14 MW turbine is deployed.

Photo: GE

The Dogger Bank Wind Farm contracted the Sif-Smulders consortium for the fabrication and supply of all foundations for phases A, B, and C.

Netherlands-based foundation manufacturer Sif Group is responsible for the fabrication and supply of monopiles and primary steel for the transition pieces, as well as for the marshalling of all foundation components at its Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam terminal.

The other half of the Sif-Smulders consortium, Smulders, is a Belgian company focused on civil and industrial projects involving steel and offshore wind energy.

Smulders will manufacture secondary steel and assemble, coat, and test fully equipped transition pieces.

Smulders is a subsidiary of France’s Eiffage Group, as part of the Group’s Infrastructure business line. Its other three business lines are Construction, Energy, and Concessions.

Dutch geo-data provider Fugro carried out geophysical surveys for all 3 phases of the Dogger Bank project.

The Fugro Synergy vessel completed the geotechnical drilling.

Saipem was awarded a contract for the transportation and installation of two offshore HVDC platforms for Dogger Bank A and B. Both platforms will have a capacity of 1.2 GW and will consist of a ca. 2,900-ton jacket and a ca. 8,500-ton topside.

Privately held Heerema Marine Contractors won the same contract for Dogger Bank C.

Seaway 7, part of the Subsea 7 Group, was awarded a contract to install foundations on all three Dogger Bank phases. This includes the transport and installation of monopile foundations and transition pieces.

Foundation installation for Dogger Bank A was completed by sub-contractor DEME deploying its Innovation vessel for installation of the first foundations followed by the Seaway Strashnov which completed the foundation installation.