DONG Energy has awarded CHC Group with a six-year contract for aviation services for the Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm in the UK. Working with Uni-Fly as a sub-contractor, CHC will support the construction phase and the first five years of operations and maintenance of the wind farm.
This includes a transfer service to take people from shore to the wind farm, and also smaller helicopters to transfer people and tools between the turbines and substations.
A combination of Leonardo AW139 and AW169 helicopters, to suit the different phases of the project, will begin flying out of Humberside heliport from April 2018.
Both the services and operations for this contract will be based from Humberside, contributing to the expansion and development of the service base and surrounding area, CHC stated.
Duncan Clark , Senior Programme Director at DONG Energy said: “The great distance from shore means we have to do things differently for Hornsea Project One, we can no longer use crew transfer vessels to take people to and from the wind farm each day.”
CHC’s Regional Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mark Abbey said: “This project allows us to build on our capabilities and experience for several other specific projects, including our extensive winch and longline experience in Kazakhstan and our extensive Search and Rescue services. We have continued to invest in equipment and training to take on unique projects just like this one and are eager to show how our business and technical skills can support this mission. This also helps drive CHC’s long-term strategy to broaden our range of services to the energy market and continue to grow our renewables service alongside our oil and gas, and Search and Rescue service.”
Hornsea Project One will be the biggest wind farm in the world, capable of supplying clean electricity to well over one million homes. It will be built 120km off the coast of Yorkshire, UK.