Preliminary construction on the 3.6GW Dogger Bank Wind Farms project has taken place this week near the coastal village of Ulrome, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Dogger Bank Wind Farms, a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Equinor, is made up of three offshore wind farm sites in the North Sea, Creyke Beck A , Creyke Beck B, and Teesside A.

All three sites were successful in the UK’s September 2019 Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions. The wind farm will make use of the world’s most powerful turbine, GE’s Haliade-X 12 MW, which will be installed on monopile foundations.

Jones Bros Civil Engineering has been awarded the contract to install the onshore cable infrastructure for the Creyke Beck A and Creyke Beck B sites. The works will also involve completing bulk earthworks at the onshore HVDC convertor station locations in East Riding.

The onshore infrastructure includes the installation of approximately 20 miles of electrical cables within ducts. The ducts will be installed within trenches and where required via drilling under existing infrastructure and natural obstacles. The completed onshore cable will transport the power generated by the two offshore wind farm sites, Creyke Beck A and Creyke Beck B from the landfall point at Ulrome to the new convertor stations, one per project, in the south of Beverley.

“Getting the first spade in the ground is a significant milestone on any project, but for what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, this is a major moment for a project that has already been over a decade in the making,” Steve Wilson, Managing Director of Dogger Bank Wind Farms, said.

The works contract also includes vegetation clearance, preparing access junctions and construction of a temporary access road to facilitate the main works, and installation of pre- and postconstruction land drainage. The full works are expected to take approximately two years to complete.

Garod Evans, Jones Bros Contracts Director, said: “We have worked with SSE Renewables on major schemes previously and we are delighted to be developing our partnership through working with them and now Equinor on the onshore works for Dogger Bank Wind Farms. There will be up to 100 Jones Bros personnel, from management to apprentices and trainees, on site at the height of the works.”

Creyke Beck A and B are approximately 130km from the Yorkshire Coast, with Teesside A located approximately 200km offshore. The first project is expected to achieve first power in 2023.