The late-October trade coverage of East Anglia Two (EA2) centres on GEOxyz running a geophysical survey of roughly 218 km² from the vessel Geo Ocean IV, with completion around 30 October, weather permitting. Read in isolation, a seabed survey suggests a project still in development. For this project that reading would be wrong.
EA2, ScottishPower Renewables' 960 MW development about 33 km off the Suffolk coast, passed final investment decision (FID) at the end of 2024, awarded essentially all of its major contracts in the weeks that followed, and has monopiles in fabrication in Rotterdam. The GEOxyz campaign is best understood as a pre-installation survey ahead of an offshore construction campaign scheduled to begin in 2027 — not as a sign that the project is re-opening its design or procurement.
The project at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Owner/developer | ScottishPower Renewables (wholly owned by Iberdrola) |
| Capacity | 960 MW (63–64 units); CfD struck at 963 MW |
| Location | Southern North Sea, ~33 km off Suffolk |
| Turbines | 64 × Siemens Gamesa SG 14-236 DD (14 MW class, 236 m rotor) |
| Foundations | 64 monopiles (Sif) + 64 transition pieces (Sif–Smulders JV) |
| Export cable | ~100 km of 275 kV subsea plus ~55 km onshore (Nexans) |
| Total investment | ~£4 billion |
| Consents | Development Consent Order granted 31 March 2022 |
| CfD | Allocation Round 6, September 2024 |
| FID | End-2024 |
| Offshore installation | Scheduled from 2027; commissioning targeted around 2028 |
Note on geography: the "33 km" figure is used consistently by SPR, Iberdrola, Sif and Smulders and is the reliable number. Some coverage cites roughly 46 km, which likely reflects a different measurement point (array centre, outermost turbine or survey extent) rather than a discrepancy worth pursuing.
Why the survey headline misleads on stage
The GEOxyz work sits in a sequence that is easy to misread. Geophysical and geotechnical survey campaigns are not a one-off development-phase activity in offshore wind: they recur before installation to confirm seabed conditions along foundation and cable routes, to satisfy marine licensing conditions and lenders' technical requirements, and to inform scour-protection design. A survey in autumn 2026, with monopiles already in production and installation specialists mobilising vessels, is consistent with a project in the fabrication–pre-installation window.
That distinction matters commercially. A reader who takes the survey as a signal that EA2 is still pre-FID would conclude that foundation, cable and turbine packages are still open. They are not. Iberdrola's own interim reporting confirms that following FID at the end of 2024, all major contracts had been awarded.
The supply chain is largely locked in
The contract awards cluster tightly around the CfD win (September 2024) and FID (end-2024), which is typical of a developer converting a revenue strike price into a build programme as fast as possible.
| Package | Supplier | Announced | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 64 monopiles | Sif (Maasvlakte 2) | Oct 2024 | Production scheduled from 2H 2026 |
| 64 transition pieces | Sif–Smulders JV | Oct 2024 | Final contract concluded after exclusive negotiations |
| Foundation and WTG transport & installation | Cadeler | 5 Nov 2024 | ~€360–382 m, covering foundations and 64 turbines; offshore works from 2027 |
| Turbine supply | Siemens Gamesa | Nov 2024 | >£1 bn; 64 × SG 14-236 DD; 115 m blades from Hull |
| Subsea and onshore export cable | Nexans | 4 Dec 2024 | ~100 km 275 kV subsea, ~55 km onshore; value undisclosed |
| Onshore substation civils prep | Taylor Woodrow | — | Friston, near Saxmundham |
Cadeler's position is the clearest operational marker. The company took delivery of its second A-class wind installation vessel, Wind Ace, on 17 July 2026, and the vessel is scheduled to begin work on EA2 after mobilisation. Wind Ace can carry up to six sets of XXL monopiles per load, with more than 17,600 t of payload. Trade reporting indicates it will work alongside one of Cadeler's O-class vessels, and that installation will not begin until 2027. That timeline is the most reliable single indicator of when steel hits the water at EA2.
Steel: where the tonnage sits
For steel suppliers and fabricators, EA2's relevance is almost entirely in the 64 monopiles and 64 transition pieces. Sif's own reporting offers the best available read on scale: its expanded Maasvlakte 2 facility is designed around a 2,500 t, 11 m-diameter reference monopile, and Sif reported in mid-2026 that production for East Anglia was progressing as planned, with output averaging four to five monopiles per week across its East Anglia workload. Multiplying 64 monopiles at 1,600–2,500 t each (Sif's recent XXXL benchmark range) suggests a foundation steel package of roughly 100,000–160,000 t — an estimate, not a disclosed figure. Add transition pieces and the turbine towers and the project's structural steel demand moves toward the 200,000 t-plus range, again by our calculation rather than any published number.
Two practical points follow:
- Fabrication is underway, not procured now. The monopile and TP awards are complete and in production. Any suggestion that foundation steel remains an open opportunity at EA2 is incorrect.
- Remaining steel demand is mostly in unglamorous places. Onshore substation structural steelwork at Friston, cable armouring and strip for the Nexans export circuit, and reinforcement for the ducted onshore route are the plausible residual pockets. None has been publicly packaged in a way that confirms an open tender, and we would treat any claim of an accessible EA2 steel package at this stage as unverified.
The more interesting steel implication is indirect. EA2 is one of the projects absorbing European monopile capacity at precisely the moment Sif is scaling Maasvlakte 2 for the UK and German pipeline. Every EA2 monopile produced is capacity unavailable to the next project in the queue — a supply-chain constraint that will shape 2027–2030 schedules across the southern North Sea.
The open question is ownership, not construction
The live uncertainty at EA2 is financial rather than technical. Iberdrola has reportedly engaged Bank of America and BBVA to advise on the sale of up to 49% of the project, with Spanish press putting an implied equity value around €5 billion. This is a reported sell-down process, not a completed transaction, and neither Iberdrola nor ScottishPower has confirmed terms publicly. A partner entering at this stage would inherit a fully contracted build programme rather than shape procurement — which is precisely why the stake is marketable.
Other questions that remain genuinely open:
- The final, confirmed offshore installation start date in 2027 (Cadeler's schedule is the best proxy, but weather and vessel sequencing will move it).
- Whether the Siemens Gamesa turbine package is fully insulated from the OEM's broader offshore restructuring.
- Exact monopile masses and steel grades, which are not disclosed and which we have estimated above.
What to watch
The next genuinely informative milestones are the first load-out of monopiles from Maasvlakte 2 and the commencement of Wind Ace's campaign at the site — not further survey news. Until those occur, EA2 should be read as a project in fabrication and vessel mobilisation: contracted, financed at the sponsor level, and roughly 15 months from offshore installation. That is a materially different position from the one implied by a headline about a seabed survey.
