Van Oord has completed the transport and installation of all 21 monopiles at Iberdrola’s 315MW Windanker offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea.
The company said the works featured the largest monopiles it has ever installed following upgrades to its heavy lift installation vessel Svanen.
According to Van Oord, its scope included loading the monopiles in Spain, transporting them to the Port of Rønne in Denmark and lifting them with MTC cranes before towing them to Svanen.
The monopiles, manufactured by a joint venture between Navantia and Windar, have a diameter of 10 metres, lengths of 70.6 to 86.6 metres and weights of up to 2,145 tonnes.
Van Oord added that bubble screens and a Hydro Sound Damper net were used to reduce underwater noise during installation.
The company also used renewable fuel to power the bubble screen compressors, cutting greenhouse gas emissions for this activity by up to 86%.
It stated that this initiative was delivered jointly with Iberdrola, Van Oord and Hydrotechnik Offshore, who shared the costs of the renewable fuel.
In partnership with Skyports Drone Services, long-range drones were deployed to transport items offshore as part of a pilot project that made Van Oord the first marine contractor to perform Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights to vessels in a wind farm under construction.
“Completing the transport and installation of all monopiles at the Windanker offshore wind farm marks an important milestone for the project,” said Joost van Wiechen, project manager at Van Oord.
“This achievement reflects the dedication and expertise of our teams, the excellent collaboration with our client Iberdrola, and the outstanding performance of the Svanen. We are proud to have installed our largest and heaviest monopile to date, which demonstrates our commitment to enhancing the energy transition and delivering sustainable solutions for the future.”
Windanker will add 315MW of capacity to Iberdrola’s Baltic Hub, supplying renewable energy to about 315,000 households.
Van Oord’s remaining scope includes installing 21 transition pieces by December 2025 and inter-array cables in the first quarter of 2026.