The first three foundations for Orsted’s Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm have been shipped from the manufacturing site in Nordenham, Germany. Steelwind is delivering a large number of the German project’s foundations over the coming months, with installation of the foundations scheduled to start in summer.
The three monopiles set sail for Eemshaven in the Netherlands, from where they will be taken to the construction site in the North Sea.
German player Steelwind is producing 66 of the up to 100-metre long and up to 1,500 tonne foundations for Gode Wind 3 and the Borkum Riffgrund 3 project, which is being built at the same time.
Senior project manager at Orsted Stefan Eckelmann said: “With the completion and successful shipping of the first three foundations, we are rapidly approaching the beginning of construction of our projects in the summer.
“This logistically expensive and complex process got off to a very good start thanks to great cooperation and we are fully focused on continuing this just as safely and smoothly with Steelwind in the coming weeks.”
A further 41 of the 107 foundations for the projects will be produced at Bladt Industries A/S’ Lindø plant in Denmark. Installation in the North Sea, around 50km off the coast of Lower Saxony, is scheduled to start this summer. 11MW Siemens Gamesa turbines are expected to be installed in summer 2024.
Gode Wind 3 (242 MW) and Borkum Riffgrund 3 (900 MW) will double Orsted’s installed wind power capacity in Germany to around 2.4GW. The two sites are expected to be fully commissioned in late 2024 and early 2025, respectively.