Van Oord took delivery of Damen’s offshore carrier (DOC) 8500 cable laying vessel, the Nexus.
The Nexus. From Damen. |
The Nexus is a 126-m vessel that will be used for the installation of electricity cables for Van Oord's Gemini offshore wind farm.
Damen says the vessel’s entire design, engineering and build took 15 months. The Nexus is now at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen, where Van Oord is building and installing the additional cable laying equipment.
Damen’s DOC concept was first introduced in 2012 as a cost-effective smaller heavy transport, offshore installation and ro-ro platform suitable for multiple markets.
Van Oord is currently in preparations for the Gemini offshore wind farm. Gemini will be located approximately 60km north of the Dutch Wadden Island of Schiermonnikoog, the Netherlands.
According to Van Oord, the 600Mw Gemini wind farm will be one of the largest offshore wind farms ever built. It will comprise 150 4Mw Siemens turbines.
Van Oord says it will be responsible for all of the engineering, procurement, and construction of the entire wind farm, and all of the electrical infrastructure, including an onshore high voltage station, two offshore substations, and all of the cables.
The Nexus was launched in June 2014 at Damen Shipyard in Romania.
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