Offshore Wind: A Playfield with Giant Toys (Photo Gallery)

The story of offshore wind farms moving farther from shore and wind turbines being installed in deeper waters does not finish with gigantic vessels and foundations, but extends to the almost entire supply chain, where equipment is also getting bigger and services are being adapted to the industry’s needs.

At the beginning of this month, the world’s largest wind installation vessel – Seajacks Scylla – started installing the world’s heaviest monopiles at the Veja Mate offshore wind site. On top of that, the project is utilizing the largest hydraulic impact hammer, which has a strike power of 4,000kJ.

Wagenborg Projects & Logistics recently handled and transported one IHC IQIP’s S-4000 Hydrohammer from IHC’s production hall to IJmuiden in the Netherlands, where it was scheduled to be installed on Seajacks Scylla. The hammer was delivered in IJmuiden together with accompanying components such as power packs, hose winches, hoses, a control cabin, and spare parts containers.

Seajacks Scylla is carrying three flanged monopiles per each trip to the construction site. There, the monopiles are upended and then driven into the seabed by the S-4000 Hydrohammer.

The delivery of the hammer for Seajacks Scylla followed the load out and transportation of another S-4000, together with two power packs and a hose winch, to Cuxhaven in Germany. There, GeoSea replaced the S-3000 Hydrohammer with the S-4000 on its jack-up vessel Innovation, which completed the installation of all 54 monopiles at the Nordsee One wind farm with the S-4000 after having already installed the first 30 monopiles with the S-3000.