Jan De Nul Group signs agreement with DONG Energy for subsea export cable installation at Race Bank offshore wind farm

Jan De Nul Group has a very long experience within dredging, and has over the last years extended the business into cable installation as well.

Race Bank Offshore Windfarm, when operational, will have a capacity of up to 580 megawatts, enough to power over 400,000 UK homes. The wind farm will be located almost 17 miles off Blakeney Point on the North Norfolk Coast, and a similar distance from the Lincolnshire coast at Chapel St. Leonards.

Jan De Nul Group will conduct installation (laying and burial) of the subsea export cables from landfall to two offshore platforms and the interlink between the offshore substations, in total 148km subsea cable. Jan De Nul Group has UK-based operations and the company will look to use the local workforce for service suppliers, site office support and cable installation crew.

The agreement between Jan De Nul Group and DONG Energy was officially signed on the 12^th of March at 11.00 at DONG Energy's exhibition stand at EWEA 2015, the world’s largest offshore wind energy conference taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jan De Nul Group’s offshore director, Noël Pille, said: “The Race Bank project is just the motivating challenge where Jan De Nul Group will make the difference. It needs the utmost ingenuity in developing new methods and designing innovating specific subsea tools to execute the tasks, respecting the environmental constraints. Our engineering department is able to design the project specific vessels and tools, making it possible to develop tailor-made solutions for DONG Energy. With its total turntable capacity of 10,500 tonnes, our new cable installation vessel "Isaac Newton" will challenge the current industry standards for the supply and installation of long length cables.”

Thomas Karst, Programme Director for Race Bank at DONG Energy, said: "Race Bank is an exciting project with the potential to power over 400,000 UK homes, and it's great to sign this agreement with Jan De Nul Group for the installation of export cables. We are currently progressing with initial construction work for Race Bank, and Jan De Nul Group will play an important role in taking this forward."