Windfarm Update: Race Bank, Rampion, Walney Extension, EnBW Baltic 2, Gode Wind 1 & 2, Sandbank

Race Bank

In July, A2SEA won a contract to provide the SEA CHALLENGER offshore installation vessel for the installation of wind turbines at DONG Energy’s Race Bank offshore wind farm from early 2017.

Also, MMT has been contracted to carry out unexploded ordnance (UXO) inspections and removal MMT along the export cable routes and within the offshore wind farm. In late August, the discovery of seven unexploded bombs was reported and DONG Energy confirmed they will be safely detonated. The 580MW Race Bank offshore wind farm is located around 30km off the North Norfolk coast. Scheduled to be operational in 2018, the offshore wind farm will be able to supply 400,000 UK homes with renewable power.

Rampion

Preparation work for the first foundation installation at the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm began in September. This includes clearing boulders along the cable route and around each of the 116 foundation positions. Foundation installation is scheduled for January next year.

Onshore work for the wind farm also started, with the first of 12 stages of the onshore development south of the Upper Brighton Road, Worthing. Building the onshore substation in  Twineham is scheduled to start by the end of September. Furthermore, the Rampion O&M base at Newhaven Port has been approved and the construction is planned to begin later next year. In September, Fugro was awarded a contract for to lay 122 Rampion array cables with its construction and installation vessels Fugro Symphony and Fugro Saltire. To bury the cables, Fugro will utilise its Q1400 trenching system.

The wind farm, being built by E.ON and the UK Green Investment Bank pic, is located 13km off the Sussex coast. Once operational, it will provide clean power to around 300,000 households.

Walney Extension

On September 14, DONG Energy appointed EEW SPC as the main supplier of 87 foundations for the 660MW Walney Extension offshore wind farm. Monopiles will be fabricated by EEW in Germany, while transition pieces will be produced by OSB in the UK and Bladt Industries in Denmark, with OSB producing 40 transition pieces and Bladt taking care of the remainder. In late August, the construction of the wind farm’s onshore substation started in Heysham, Lancashire.

Walney Extension is located some 19km off the Cumbrian coast, next to the already operational Walney offshore wind farm. The offshore construction is expected to start in 2017.

EnBW Baltic 2

On 21 September, EnBW officially put its Baltic 2 offshore wind farm into operation. After a construction period of around two years, the wind farm located 32km off the island of Rügen will now generate enough electricity to power around 340,000 households annually. The 288MW EnBW Baltic 2 comprises 80 Siemens SWT-3.6-120 wind urbines, erected on different foundations. Monopiles, 39 of them, have been used for water depths of up to 35m, while 41 jackets have been installed in water depths of over 35m.

Gode Wind 1 & 2

The final of 97 foundations was installed at DONG Energy’s Gode Wind 1 and 2 wind farms in mid-September, after 5 months of installing the monopiles and transition pieces. The installation has been done within the noise limits set by the German authorities, by using a noise mitigation steel sleeve and a big bubble curtain.

Gode Wind 1 and 2, located 33km from the German islands of Juist and Norderney, are scheduled to go into operation in 2016. With a total capacity of 582 megawatts, it will to supply 600,000 German households with clean power.

Sandbank

Inter array cabling of Vattenfall and Stadtwerke Miinchen’s Sandbank offshore wind farm started in September. Some 96km of JDR’s cables will belaid between the monopiles by the cable-laying vessel Stemat Spirit, which also transports the cables from Great Britain to the construction site 90km west of the German island Sylt. The main contractor for the inter array cabling is VBMS.

These cables have an optical fiber that allows data exchange between each wind turbine and the offshore substation, as well as remote control and surveillance of the Sandbank offshore wind farm from Vattenfall’s Control Center in Esbjerg, Denmark. The wind farm, which will feature 72 Siemens 4MW wind turbines, is planned to be fully commissioned in 2017.