Construction of Sofia officially began June 2021 with enabling works at the site of the project's onshore converter station in Redcar, Teesside. All the project's Tier 1 suppliers - providing the main component packages including turbines, foundations and electrical infrastructure - are progressing with their respective work scopes. Onshore GE's Grid Solutions and its contractors are working together on the converter station with J. Murphy and Sons progressing well with the export cable civil engineering works. Offshore construction started in September 2023 and is based out of the Port of Blyth. Marine works are well underway on the preparation of the Dogger Bank site.
Onshore and offshore surveys have been vital to the development of Sofia since early environmental impact assessment work that informed the original development consent application. As the project moves through its construction phase, surveys will continue to remain an integral part of our activity.
A total of twelve ornithology aerial-LiDAR surveys to collect data on kittiwake flight height and abundance have now been completed which marks the end of our pre-construction ornithology surveys.
Investigations into potential UXO and archaeology features in the nearshore area and along the export cable corridor and at the array site were completed in summer 2022. An ROV investigated potential UXOs and several possible archaeological features and also inspected an additional aid to navigation buoy location. Also a multi-beam seafloor survey was carried out in advance of the main offshore landfall horizontal directional drilling (HDD) works which are now complete. Multibeam and sidescan sonar surveys of the pre-plough array cable routes and foundation locations were undertaken in early 2023 in advance of scour protection installation.
More recently a post-detonation survey has analysed how the seabed has recovered following a UXO detonation, which concluded that there was no identifiable crater which suggests that it has naturally backfilled over time.
The onshore cable route surveys were completed earlier in 2022 in readiness for the start of construction of the civil engineering works on the onshore cable corridor, now in full swing. The surveys included a team of onshore archaeologists from Durham University’s Archaeological Services (DUAS) carrying out excavation and recording work at locations along the cable route, from landfall near the coast to the Wilton onshore converter station site.
Following magnetometer surveys earlier in 2022, some manual excavations were carried out on the beach and within the intertidal zone to review potential UXOs identified in that area. As with the multi-beam seafloor survey above, activity was completed ahead of the start of the HDD at the landfall.
Other surveys have included a barn owl survey and monitoring of a pair of ringed plover which successfully hatched two fledging chicks near the site.
The health, safety and wellbeing of our project team and contractor personnel is our first priority. We have the highest safety standards and will ensure a positive safety culture is embedded within the project, implemented through focussed safety campaigns and continual reinforcement.
Safety starts at the top and Sofia's leadership will lead the way through a visible commitment to safety in all areas of the project both onshore and offshore.
Exemplary health, safety and wellbeing is vital to the successful construction, commissioning and operation of the wind farm.
Fostering RWE Renewable’s safety principles under the ‘We Care’ campaign:
