Photo of the Day: Neptune Mariner Tows Arkona Monopile to Svanen

Landfall Marine Contractors has posted a photo of its Neptune Mariner during the delivery of one of the monopiles for the 385MW Arkona offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea, where they are being installed by Van Oord’s heavy lift installation vessel Svanen.

Van Oord won the contract for the transport and installation of foundations at the Arkona offshore wind farm in April 2016.

The company’s heavy lift installation vessel Svanen installed the first out of sixty monopile foundation at the end of August this year.

In terms of transport to the construction site, the monopiles are sealed at both ends, launched and floated to the construction site. There, Svanen hammers the 81-metre monopiles 40 metres deep into the seabed. A sound-proofing system ensures that the noise from this work is minimised for marine fauna, E.ON said.

Arkona will comprise 60 Siemens 6MW turbines, which A2SEA will start installing in 2018.

Operation and maintenance of the wind farm will be handled entirely from the Mukran Port.