Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel Aeolus has installed the first monopile foundation at the RWE Sofia offshore wind farm. At the same time, the company has been contracted by the Spanish energy company Iberdrola for the construction of the German Windanker offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.
The Sofia wind farm is located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea, 195 kilometres from the North East coast of the UK. In the coming months, Van Oord will install a total of 100 monopile foundations at the 1.4 GW Sofia Offshore Wind Farm. It is one of the largest offshore wind projects in the world, which will have enough capacity to power 1.2 million average UK homes.
RWE contracted Van Oord for the design, engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of the monopile foundations and array cables for this project. Project execution is being managed by Van Oord Offshore Wind UK from their MPI Offshore office in Stokesley, Teesside.
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Bravenes, Nordnes and Calypso
Van Oord deployed its flexible fallpipe vessels Bravenes and Nordnes to install scour protection at the locations where the monopiles are now being installed. The monopiles have a diameter of up to 8.8 metres, a length of up to 92 metres and a weight of up to 1530 tonnes. They have been manufactured by EEW in Rostock, Germany, and are transported by barges to the Port of Tyne. This port serves as the storage and marshalling base for the wind turbine generator (WTG) foundations and is located near Newcastle on the River Tyne in North East England.
Later this year, Van Oord’s cable-laying vessel Calypso and trencher Dig-it will be deployed to install the 360 kilometres of array cables.
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Extended monopiles
For this project, so-called extended monopiles are used, eliminating the need for a transition piece. To complete the WTG foundations, the monopiles will be equipped with secondary steel components consisting of main access platforms, internal platforms, boat landings and upper ladders.
The secondary steel components have been manufactured by various suppliers in the Netherlands and Poland and are also transported to the Port of Tyne. The cables have been manufactured in Greece and are stored in the Port of Blyth, which is located just north of Newcastle.
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Svanen and Nexus to work on Windanker
Van Oord’s scope includes the transport and installation of 21 XL monopiles and transition pieces and the design, supply and installation of the inter-array cable grid. Windanker will have an installed capacity of 300 MW. The development of the wind farm is in line with Germany’s plans to develop 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
For the installation of the monopiles Van Oord will deploy its heavy-lift installation vessel Svanen. By then the vessel will have undergone a major upgrade, making it ready to handle the next generation of monopile foundations for offshore wind projects. The vessel is tailored to navigate the Baltic Sea’s tough conditions. Its track record on projects such as Baltic 2, Arkona, Danish Kriegers Flak and Baltic Eagle demonstrates its expertise in this challenging offshore area.
Van Oord will deploy its dedicated cable-laying vessel Nexus for the installation of the inter-array cables, with a total length of 29 kilometres. Trencher Dig-It will bury the cables to the required depth. The wind farm is expected to be commissioned in 2026.
Picture (top): Aeolus installs first monopile foundation at Sofia Offshore Wind Farm (by Van Oord).
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