Dutch dredging and offshore major Van Oord has today signed a contract with DONG Energy to install foundations at the UK Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm.
The project involves 32 monopiles and transition piece foundations, plus the supply and installation of scour protection, as well as providing logistics between the fabrication ports in Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom with the wind farm.
“The monopiles will be piled,” a Van Oord spokesman told IHS Maritime, although she declined to reveal the contract value. “A side stone dumping vessel – probably the HAM 602 – will place some 30,000 m³ of scour protection material.
“Start and completion are scheduled for summer 2016,” she added, stating that the short execution period will be the main challenge faced.
Burbo Bank Extension wind farm is 8 km off the coast in Liverpool Bay and with 32 x 8 MW Vestas wind turbines will have a total capacity of 258 MW – enough to power more than 180,000 UK homes.
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Van Oord plans to use its heavy lift vessel Svanen to install the foundations.
“The installation strategy is based on the feeder concept, bringing foundation components floating to Svanen at the installation site,” the spokeswoman explained.
“This method has been optimised over recent years resulting in highly efficient installation cycles – to date, Svanen has successfully installed nearly 500 offshore wind turbine foundations. The project is a perfect fit with Van Oord’s strategy, which is aimed at delivering innovative and sustainable solutions to the offshore wind industry.”
Van Oord has been involved in offshore wind farm construction in the North Sea since 2002, projects including the Dutch Princess Amalia, Belgian Belwind, and UK Teesside farms.
DONG Energy’s senior project director, Klaus Skoust Moller, commented, “It’s great to sign this agreement with Van Oord – the last of our main contracts to be signed.”
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
