Dogger Bank development milestone

The option agreement between the Port of Tyne and Equinor and SSE Renewables, which are realising Dogger Bank Wind Farm as a 50:50 joint venture, concludes the preliminary phase of a project to build the operations and maintenance (O&M) base of Dogger Bank at the port’s Tyne Clean Energy Park.

Under the terms of the option agreement contract, Dogger Bank Wind Farm will retain full rights to develop its windfarm O&M facility for a set period, although initial works are expected to commence in early 2021.

Matt Beeton, CEO of the Port of Tyne, said: “As we work towards submitting our world-class freeport coalition bid, this contract signals the completion of a very exciting first step for both Port of Tyne and Equinor. This option agreement represents a catalyst to ignite future development of the port’s nascent renewables cluster and will trigger additional investment in Tyne Dock Enterprise Park as a further development opportunity for related commercial activities.”

Port of Tyne is currently approving construction bids to complete its landlords works, involving the construction of a new access road, improved drainage facilities, enabling works for electricity infrastructure and a quay upgrade. The port will be completing these initial works by July 2021, ready for the full building phase to commence by Q3 of 2021. The construction works, including the new portside facility, will be ready for its offshore service operational vessels (SOVs) when the wind farm operations are scheduled to begin during 2023.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm is being built in three equal phases of 1.2GW, and Eni will take a 20% stake in the first two phases when transactions are complete in Q1 2021. Equinor will operate the wind farm for its life of up to 35 years and will construct the O&M base.