Offshore installation contractor Fred Olsen Windcarrier (FOW) will supply a liftboat to engineering consultancy Geo for geotechnical investigations on the Denmark’s biggest offshore wind prospect, the 1GW Thor project.

The Norwegian company’s Jill vessel will start the for borehole campaign in June at Thor, which will be the first of three large offshore wind projects planned by Denmark by 2030 via national transmission system operator Energinet.dk under its national energy transition plan, agreed last year by politicians from across the spectrum.

“We are very excited to be working with Geo on this project. The two companies combine the best of maritime and offshore wind experience with the most extensive expertise within the fields of soil and seabed investigations,” said FOW sales manager Thomas Lund.

Geo department director Jens Brink Clausen added: “We are looking forward to do the first geotechnical work on Thor for Energinet.dk this summer. Our cooperation with FOW will ensure a very safe and robust solution for the drilling operations.”

The Thor assignment is targeting acquisition of geotechnical and geological information about the subsurface to be used as a basis for developers to assess the soil conditions for the project.

Liftboat Jill, a self-propelled vessel that features 102-metre-long legs, a rack and pinion hydraulic jacking system and four cranes, has seen service in the geotechnical, offshore wind, construction, oil & gas and cable repair markets.

Thor, up to 20km offshore in the Danish North Sea, has to be fully online by 2027 and will be Denmark's largest, surpassing the 600MW Kriegers Flak that's due in service in 2021 and 407MW Horns Rev 3, which began operating this year.