Parkwind and DEME Offshore have successfully installed the first monopile foundation for the 257MW Arcadis Ost 1 offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea.
This foundation will carry the project’s offshore substation.
The 2100-tonne, 9.5-metre diameter, 110-metre long monopile is one of the biggest ever installed and marks the first of 28 foundations to be installed over the coming weeks, the developers said.
The project is setting new standards in XXL monopile foundation installation methods with the installation of the first monopile, said Parkwind.
Installation was performed by DEME’s DP3 installation vessel Orion, which used a motion compensated pile gripper to successfully install the foundation.
Arcadis Ost 1 Project director Wim Verrept said: “The first monopile is of a particular significance to us.
“After almost three years of preparation and hard work by the entire team, the installation of Parkwind’s first offshore wind farm outside Belgium successfully kicks-off and is well underway.”
DEME Offshore project director Mathieu Holvoet added: “This first installation is a magnificent result of far advanced engineering and the extraordinary dedication of an entire team that has been working hard towards and looking forward to this moment.
“This is also a huge step in the future of offshore wind, being floating installation with the new vessel the Orion which will allow to install wind farms quicker and in area’s which were technically not achievable before.”
Arcadis Ost 1 is located in the German territorial waters of the Baltic Sea, northeast of the island of Rügen, and generates enough green energy to power the equivalent of up to 290,000 households.