Sarens has been actively involved in the construction of the Sofia Offshore Wind plant by successfully carrying out the Sofia OCP Jacket and Topside Weighing and Loadout project. The plant — owned by RWE and on Dogger Bank in the North Sea, 195 kilometers off the coast of the U.K. — will have 100 turbines and a power generation capacity of 1.4 GW reaching the coast through an extensive inter-array cable network. It will provide green electricity to 1.2 million homes in the U.K. The turbines will be mounted on monopiles, reaching heights of 252 meters.
Sarens provided a complete package of services, including manpower, engineering, mooring winches, weighing equipment, and 524 axles with 18 PPU self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) for the weighing and loadout.
Sarens, a global leader and reference in crane rental services, heavy lifting, and engineered transport, has been actively involved in the construction of the plant, successfully completing the Sofia OCP jacket and topside weighing and loadout project. This work, carried out in collaboration with RWE & GE and managed by Seatrium, took place at Seatrium’s shipyard in Batam, Indonesia, from May 25, 2024 to June 15, 2024.
The project involved the offshore converter platform (OCP), a crucial element for the HVDC electrical system of the offshore wind farm. This tool is responsible for converting the energy into direct current (DC) and then transmitting it to land. Thanks to this system, the electricity generated by the rotation of the wind turbines is converted from 66kV alternating current to 320kV direct current. Two seven-kilometer-long cables carry the electricity to the Lazenby converter station.
The main part of the project consisted of transporting and loading the gigantic OCP topside, which weighs 14,000 tons and is 57 meters high, as well as the OCP Jacket, weighing 5,250 tons and 51 meters high. This complex job marks the heaviest topside move in Southeast Asia, and historically, one of the heaviest ever undertaken in the world.
Although the weight and size of the parts posed a major challenge, Sarens’ logistics team ensured punctual delivery and maintenance of the OCP units. To make this possible, Sarens provided a complete package of services, including manpower, engineering, mooring winches, weighing equipment, and 524 axles with 18 PPU Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) for the weighing and loadout. At the peak of the work, there were 28 Sarens members who had to deal with adverse conditions, including the impact of the rainy season on site preparation.
The Sofia offshore wind plant will be commissioned in 2026, at which time it will begin generating clean energy that will reach hundreds of thousands of homes in the United Kingdom by making use of a network of approximately 360 kilometers of inter-array cables from the turbines to the platform.
Sarens has extensive international experience in the assembly and maintenance of wind farms. It has participated in various installations around the world and particularly in Europe, as in France (Saint Nazaire and Saint Brieuc) and the U.K., where its last project is now successfully completed. Recently, Sarens worked in the marshaling of 62 of the monopiles, each weighing 2,000 metric tons, the largest and heaviest XXL monopiles ever to be handled in the U.K., and now the 882 MW Moray West offshore wind farm, is well on its way to contribute to the Scottish renewable energy network.
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