The installation vessel Aeolus has arrived at Belfast Harbour ahead of the foundation installation works at the Walney Extension offshore wind farm in the UK.
EEW SPC is the main supplier of foundations for the 660MW offshore wind farm and is in charge of producing the monopiles at its facilities in from Rostock, Germany, while the associated transition pieces are being supplied under a sub-contract, with OSB delivering 40 from their Teesside factory in the UK and Bladt Industries producing the remainder in Aalborg, Denmark.
Van Oord was contracted to transport and install the 87 foundations at the site. In October 2016, Van Oord appointed SAL Heavy Lift for transportation of 87 monopiles from Rostock, 47 transition pieces from Aalborg, and 40 transition pieces from Teesside, to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Schmidbauer is in charge of unloading, storing and transporting the transition pieces and monopiles at the feeder harbor in Belfast.
The wind farm will consist of 40 8MW MHI Vestas and 47 7MW Siemens wind turbines. The jack-up vessel Seajacks Scylla was hired to transport and install the turbines.
The Walney Extension offshore wind farm is expected to be operational in 2019.