Navantia-Windar Starts Building Moray West Monopiles

January 17, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

Spain’s Navantia Seanergies and Windar Renovables have started production of the first of the 14 XXL monopiles for the Moray West offshore wind project, with the bending of the first sheet.

The monopiles will have an approximate length of 90 metres, a maximum diameter of 10 metres, and a maximum weight of 2,000 tons. This type of XXL monopiles, the product with the highest market share among fixed foundations, is new to Navantia-Windar’s offer, the companies said.

This milestone is said to consolidate the Navantia-Windar business alliance, which has become the only European supplier capable of building the three types of offshore wind foundations: monopiles, jackets, and floating foundations.

Moray West is being developed by Ocean Winds in the western area of the Moray Firth, about 22 kilometres off the coast of Caithness.

The global execution period is 10 months, generating 280,000 working hours and an average of 150 direct jobs per month for the manufacture of the 14 XXL monopiles.

Last November, the LEMS consortium, of which Ocean Winds is a part, awarded Navantia-Windar the construction of 62 wind turbine jacket foundations for the Dieppe le Tréport offshore wind farm in France.

Both the monopiles and the jackets will be built at the Fene shipyard, with the manufacturing work on the jackets scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023 with an approximate duration of two years and four million working hours. Therefore, for a few months, the production of two types of foundations will take place for the same client, the companies said.

The Moray West offshore wind farm will comprise 60 Siemens Gamesa 14.7 MW wind turbines and two offshore substations, all installed on monopile foundations.

The remaining 48 monopiles will be delivered by China’s Dajin Heavy Industry.