Bilfinger to Test Wikinger Steel Foundations

The engineering and services group Bilfinger will test steel foundations for the Wikinger offshore wind farm project in the Baltic Sea on behalf of Spanish energy supplier Iberdrola.

Beginning in 2016, a total of 70 wind turbines are planned to be installed in water depths of up to 42 meters North East of the German island of Rügen. The order for the manufacture, installation and testing of several test piles has a volume of nearly €20 million. Bilfinger will deliver the necessary steel foundations from its own production.

“The project is an important step forward for our offshore business, one that will further expand our leading technological position in the construction of foundations for wind turbines on the open seas”, said Joachim Enenkel, Member of the Executive Board at Bilfinger SE. In recent years, the Group has delivered the foundations for a large proportion of the wind farms built in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The foundation work for Dan Tysk in the German North Sea was completed in 2013 and in 2012 the company also concluded work for London Array in the Thames Estuary.

In the fall of 2014, in order to optimize the design and manufacture of the required foundations for the upcoming construction of the Wikinger wind farm, Bilfinger will drive steel piles that are up to 38 meters long into the seabed at the future location of the wind turbines. Tension and pressure tests will be conducted under water following a static period of several weeks. The findings gained in this way will lead to a technically and economically optimized solution for the wind turbine foundations.

In addition, Bilfinger will test noise protection systems for the client which will help reduce the noise pollution that marine fauna is exposed to during the construction phase to a minimum.