WINDFARM UPDATES: Sandbank & Wikinger

Sandbank 

Foundation construction work has started for the 288MW Sandbank offshore wind farm, approximately 100km North West of the island Sylt, which will comprise 72 Siemens 4MW turbines.

The 72 steel monopile foundations, with diameters of up to 6.8m and lengths of up to 70m, are built by EEW Special Pipe Constructions GmbH in Rostock. Depending on their location within the wind farm, the monopiles will have a weighing around 886t. EEW SPC will subcontract Danish company Bladt Industries for the production of transition pieces. First installation activities will start this summer. Esbjerg will be used as the base port.

The fabrication of Sandbank’s offshore substation will also start soon. Seaway Heavy Lifting has been awarded the contract for the transportation and installation of the substation which is expected to be installed in 2016, using the Stanislav Yudin.

 Sandbank, a project by Vattenfall and Stadtwerke Miinchen, is expected to become operational in 2017.

Wikinger

Spanish developer Iberdrola has awarded several contracts for its 350MW Wikinger offshore project, located 34km northeast of the island of Riigen, in the Baltic Sea, covering an area of roughly 34km2 with water depths ranging between 37 and 43m.

It has awarded the contract for the supply of the 70 wind turbines to French turbine manufacturer AREVA. The contract, valued at approximately €620m, is the company’s largest renewable energy contract to date. The French company will supply their M5000-135 5MW wind turbines. It is the first time that Iberdrola will be installing 5-MW turbines in a wind facility. Under the terms of the contract, AREVA will also provide maintenance services, valued at €70m, for a 5-year period which may be extended for another 5 years.

AREVA will deliver this project within the framework of a joint venture recently agreed with Gamesa to combine both groups’ offshore businesses and strengthen their competitiveness in the offshore industry. Manufacturing will take place at AREVA’s production sites in Bremerhaven and Stade, Northern Germany. The turbines are scheduled to be installed as early as 2017.

The turbines will be installed on four legged jacket foundations. The contract for the construction of the 29 jacket foundations (valued at €90m) has been awarded to the Spanish Navantia. They will be built at the Navantia shipyard in Fene. The same company has also been awarded the contract for the construction and on-site installation of the offshore substation (valued at €70m). This work will be carried out at their shipyard in Puerto Real.

Iberdrola has awarded the contract for the transport and installation of 70 foundations and 6 offshore substation piles to Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) and Volker Stevin International (VolkerWessels). The contract has a value of approximately €75m for Boskalis and €60m for VolkerWessels.

The foundation components will be transported from 4 different locations in Europe to Sassnitz-Mukran in Germany by Boskalis barges and anchor handling tugs and Dockwise semi-submersible transport vessels. The pile installation activities will be executed by a Boskalis Giant barge with a 1,000t crane and the installation of the jackets by the Boskalis 2,200t Taklift 4 sheerlegs. The project is scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2016 with completion expected in Q4 2016.

Wikinger is the first offshore wind farm for Iberdrola in German waters. Once in operation, the €1.4bn project will produce electricity for around 350,000 German households and create around 100 direct and indirect jobs.