Danish energy company Dong Energy is planning to build on the River Humber in Grimsby, England, what would currently be the world’s largest offshore operations and maintenance wind hub.
The company said on September 22nd that the operation would service the increasing number of vessels operating in the sector.
The hub will also include a marine coordination centre for providing service to offshore operations across the UK and overseas.
Dong’s new facility will initially support Westermost Rough, Race Bank and Hornsea Project One offshore wind farms, but will have the capacity to support other east coast wind farms in the company’s development pipeline.
UK Country Chairman of Dong Energy Brent Cheshire said that the new operational hub in Grimsby would be “a game changing industry first, raising the bar for the way we serve offshore wind farms. It will generate direct and indirect job opportunities in the Humber region, as well as opportunities for the local supply chain”.
Dong expects to have invested £6bn ($7.8bn) in the Humber region by 2019.
The new hub will be located alongside the existing Westermost Rough operation and maintenance facility, using additional land to be leased from Associated British Ports.
The hub will act as home base for two state-of-the-art Service Operational Vessels that will be supplied by Ostensjo Rederi on charter to Dong Energy. The first vessel is expected to arrive late in 2017 to support a phased activation on the new facility.