It’s all hands-on deck as North Star, ScottishPower Renewables and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy launch a competition to complete the name for a new ship bound for the East Anglia THREE windfarm, located off the Suffolk coast.
The Siemens Gamesa and ScottishPower teams are planning a brand new windfarm called East Anglia THREE. The wind farm will be so far offshore that the technicians working on the operations and maintaining the turbines will live at sea for weeks at a time. To make this more comfortable for them, and so that they have everything they need to hand, we use a ship called a service operation vessel (or SOV for short) as a floating warehouse, hotel, and transport to help them with their daily jobs.
While we're working hard on building the ship, the next stage is where we need your help! Can you suggest a name for this new ship?
All of our ships start with the name 'Grampian', it's in our North Star heritage as it's where our head office has been based in Grampian, Scotland for over 130 years - the next part of the name is down to you! We'd like something that has a link to our rich local maritime heritage or local community in East Anglia and Lowestoft, so get your thinking caps on . . .
This is an exciting opportunity for local schools and individuals to get involved in naming the latest addition to our fleet, which will play a crucial role in maintaining and servicing East Anglia THREE for the next decade.
The winner will be invited on board for a tour on one of our existing SOVs and they will also be presented with a special scale model of the new ship bearing its new name. We look forward to seeing the creative suggestions that celebrate our local maritime heritage and community!
You can enter our competition to name the vessel here:
This new North Star SOV will accommodate up to 60 of Siemens Gamesa’s wind technicians as they work offshore maintaining all 95 wind turbines at the East Anglia Hub development. This is one of five SOVs North Star currently has under construction for the offshore wind sector, having already delivered its first three: the Grampian Tyne, Grampian Derwent and Grampian Tees.
The new SOV is due to be delivered to Siemans Gamesa to commence operations for ScottishPower Renewables' East Anglia THREE development in late 2026. Once operational, it will be the second largest offshore windfarm in the world, supplying enough green electricity to power the equivalent of 1.3 million homes.
UK residents can enter the competition through the link above, and full terms and conditions are available below. The competition is open from today (Wednesday 2nd October 2024) and entries close on Saturday, 30th November 2024.
Source: North Star
