DEME Group and the Port of Thyboron have signed a contract regarding the installation of foundations for Vattenfall’s Vesterhav Nord and Syd offshore wind farms in the Danish North Sea.
The foundations that DEME will be installing include 41 monopiles and transition pieces (TPs).
The 77-metre-long monopiles, each weighing around 622 tonnes will be produced by EEW in Rostock, Germany.
The associated 22.5-metre-long TPs, each weighing 275 tonnes, between the monopiles and the wind turbines will be produced in Aalborg by Bladt Industries.
DEME’s installation vessel Innovation will regularly sail into the Port of Thyboron to load foundations and then out to the offshore wind farms in the North Sea to install them.
“When Innovation arrives probable on 18 February to pick up the first 4 foundations for Vesterhav Nord and Syd, it will be a day of celebration at the Port of Thyboron”, said Jesper Holt Jensen , Director of the Port of Thyboron.
The port’s close proximity to the offshore wind farms maximises the project’s efficiency, said the port. Vestarhav Nord will be installed 5.5-8.4 kilometres offshore, slightly south of Thyboron, and Vesterhav Syd will be located north of Hvide Sande, 9-10 kilometres offshore.
Being able to ship the foundations to a port that is near at hand should reduce the distance the installation vessel has to sail, to the benefit of the project timetable and budget, as well as the environment.
The Vesterhav Nord and Syd offshore wind farms, which have a combined capacity of 344 MW, will comprise 41 Siemens Gamesa 8.4 MW wind turbines to be installed by Jan De Nul.
The Danish Energy Agency approved the construction of the two projects in December 2020 while the commissioning of the wind farms is expected by the end of 2023.
This is the first time such a large offshore wind farm installation project will be serviced from the Thyboron Port.
The close cooperation with DEME during this project gives the port a valuable foundation for another expansion that supports the sector, the port said.
This has resulted in the establishment of a new eleven-metre-deep channel from the North Sea all the way to the offshore project quay facilities at the port.
The Port of Thyboron currently offers 300,000 square metres of quayside land for storing primary components, a quay with a load-bearing capacity of up to 33 tonnes per square metre, and now also a channel up to eleven metres deep from the North Sea to the project quay facilities in Sydhavnen.
Its location as a natural harbour inside the Liim Ford offers potential for greater capacity in the form of port expansions that add more quayside land and quays in the long term, according to the port company.