The first jacket foundations have arrived in Cuxhaven for Orsted’s 450MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 wind farm in the German North Sea.
Polish shipyard ST3 Offshore is fabricating 20 jackets for the project, with Harland and Wolff manufacturing the suction buckets for the foundations.
The structures will be assembled at Cuxhaven ahead of installation by GeoSea vessel Innovation 38km off the German island of Borkum in the spring.
Cuxport, the operator of Cuxhaven, has brought in a LR 11350 crawler crane to lift the jackets from the transport barges and place them on the suction buckets.
Once the 50-metre high and 950-tonne structures have been assembled they will be moved to a storage area until installation.
Cuxport business development manager Roland Schneider said: “A project of this magnitude requires precise planning and execution, both for handling, storage and transport.
“In this regard, the coordination and exchange with our customer GeoSea and with all stakeholders of the project was very positive.”
Borkum Riffgrund 2 is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2019 and will feature 56 MHI Vestas 8MW wind turbines installed on 36 monopiles and the 20 suction bucket jacket foundations.
Image: Cuxport
Riffgrund 2 jackets line up
By EBS