DongEnergy Wind Power A/S has contracted SPT Offshore for the installation and installation engineering of the suction buckets for Dong’sdemonstration tripod suction bucket jacket (SBJ) foundation as per of the Borkum Riffgrund 1 wind farm.
The suction bucket jacket foundation will support a 3.6 MW Siemens wind turbine generator. The local water depth is 25m. Offshore installation of the SBJ foundation from the Pacific Orca is planned for August 2014.
Throughout the past 4 years SPT Offshore have received extensive support from the UK Carbon Trust and its eight offshore wind accelerator (OWA) partners, including amongst others Dong Energy as part of the OWA program to reduce the costs of offshore wind. The support consisted the enhanced development of SPT’s Suction Installed Wind Turbine (SIWT) concept.
The SIWT is basically a tripod structure founded on 3 suction piles. High speed and simplicity of installation and no subsea noise are important features of the SIWT concept. The SIWT concept allows one piece installation of the complete foundation, including (optional) the wind turbine generator. Mark Riemers, MD of SPT Offshore stated that he is extremely pleased with the award from Dong on this exciting project. This shows that the SIWT concept is one of the front runners of all concepts considered under the OWA program.