Toronto: Northland Power Inc. announced April 18 that installation of all 54 foundations, including monopiles and transition pieces, for its 332 MW Nordsee One offshore wind project, located in the North Sea, had been successfully completed two days before, and six weeks ahead of schedule, on April 16.
The foundations are up to 70 metres tall, and each one weighs approximately 900 tons. Installation was performed by Nordsee One's installation contractor GeoSea, and the foundations were manufactured by Ambau. Installation of the inter-array cables and the offshore substation will begin in the coming months; wind turbine installation is anticipated to begin in early 2017.
The Nordsee One wind farm will consist of 54 wind turbines with an overall installed capacity of 332 megawatts. Once commissioned in 2017, the wind farm is expected to produce an annual output of more than 1,300 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy, enough to supply the equivalent of approximately 400,000 German households. Nordsee One is owned by Northland (85%) and RWE International SE (15%).
"Completion of the foundation installation is an important project milestone, and I'm pleased to report that the project remains on time and on budget," said Northland CEO John Brace. "I would like to acknowledge the collective efforts of the project team and contractors, and our partner RWE; we look forward to continued collaboration over the coming months."