Jan De Nul Group has selected Wagenborg Towage as logistic supplier for monopiles for the Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms. In total, Wagenborg will transport 107 monopile foundations to Eemshaven.
Assisted by the tug Waterlines, the first transports have already arrived in Eemshaven. In the upcoming months, Wagenborg will perform another 35 voyages with monopiles from Germany and Denmark to the temporary storage in Eemshaven using a specially equipped pontoon (100 × 33 × 7.6 metres).
This Wagenborg Barge 8 is equipped with hydraulically operated saddles and an additional internal ballast system to carry three monopiles per voyage. Wagenborg’s engineers carried out detailed calculations for this method of transport, taking stability, sea conditions and a weight of 1500 tonnes per monopile into account.
Also read: Wagenborg to convert another platform supply vessel
Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3
The 242 MW Gode Wind 3 and 900 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 wind farms are owned and developed by Danish renewable energy giant Ørsted. Both wind farms will be built in the German North Sea, starting this summer, with full commercial operation scheduled for late 2024 and early 2025, respectively.
Once operable, these wind farms will generate enough electricity to power approximately 1.2 million German households for a year.
Also read: Wagenborg orders fourth EasyMax vessel from Niestern Sander
First assignment for Jan De Nul’s Les Alizés
On 17 March, Jan De Nul reported it had officially started the transport and installation contract for the construction of both offshore wind farms. A first batch of three monopile foundations had left Steelwind’s yard in Nordenham (Germany) to Eemshaven. Jan De Nul’s scope includes the transport and installation of 106 wind turbine monopile foundations and one offshore substation foundation, including associated topside.
In summer, Jan De Nul’s brand-new Heavy Lift Vessel Les Alizés will arrive on site and install the first monopile foundation offshore. Les Alizés was delivered by the CMHI Shipyard in China in January 2023 and is currently sailing to Eemshaven in the Netherlands. This vessel investment is a response to the global trend within the offshore wind energy sector to design and install increasingly larger wind turbines.
Thanks to its dimensions and impressive lifting and loading capacities, Les Alizés will be able to load out, transport and install multiple units of the largest and heaviest wind turbine foundations. In addition, as a crane vessel that floats, it will be able to install heavier and larger foundations into deeper waters and in more challenging seabed conditions.
Also read: Jan De Nul’s Les Alizés headed for Europe
