Borkum Riffgrund 2 Jackets Start Arriving in Cuxhaven

The barges and coasters carrying jacket foundations and suction buckets to be installed on Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 2 wind farm in the German North Sea have started arriving at the port of Cuxhaven.

Cuxhaven terminal operator Cuxport is involved in the assembly and storing of the 20 suction bucket jackets for the project until they are shipped to the installation site some 40 kilometres northwest of the island of Borkum in spring.

The jackets are being delivered from ST3 Offshore’s manufacturing facility in Stettin, Poland, and the accompanying suction buckets are being shipped from Harland and Wolff’s facilities in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

When they arrive at Cuxhaven, an LR 11350 crawler crane, which had been brought to Cuxhaven for this project, lifts the jackets from the barge and places them onto the previously positioned buckets, three per jacket.

After they are assembled, the complete suction bucket jacket structures, measuring more than 50 metres high and weighing 950 tons in total, are transported via SPMT (Self-Propelled Modular Transporter) across the heavy-duty berth to be placed in a specially prepared storage area until the installation vessel picks them up.

GeoSea is in charge of installing the wind farm’s 20 suction bucket jackets foundations.

“Cuxhaven was specifically chosen because of the optimal local conditions for the handling of these massive components as well as for the operation of the installation vessel ‘Innovation’,” said Roland Schneider, Head of Business Development at Cuxport.

“A project of this magnitude requires precise planning and execution, both for the transhipment and storage as well as the transport. What has been great so far is the excellent communication and collaboration with our customer GeoSea as well as the different partners of the project.”

The 450MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farm will comprise 56 MHI Vestas 8MW turbines installed on the 20 suction bucket jackets and 36 monopile foundations which will be installed by Jan De Nul.

The wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned in 2019.

NOTE: The title of the original article was corrected on Saturday, 03 March. Due to an editorial error, the title suggested the jackets are for the Merkur project, and not the Borkum Riffgrund 2.