The heaviest monopile ever produced for an offshore wind project left the production site of EEW Special Pipe Constructions GmbH in Rostock on 2 March, and will be ready to be installed at the 402MW Veja Mate offshore wind farm within the next few months.
This monopile weighs a total of 1,302.5 tons, its diameter is 7.8 metres, and it is 82.2 metres long. The next step will be the coating of this behemoth, the first of 67 to be fabricated to support Siemens 6MW turbines at Veja Mate.
Handover to the customer Offshore Windforce, a joint venture of Boskalis and Volker Stevin International, is scheduled for the end of April 2016. Offshore Windforce will then be in charge of loading and transport.
”Without the confidence of our customer and the commitment of our staff the production of this giant monopile would not have been possible. I would like to express my deep felt gratitude to all those involved,” said Andreas Dietze, the Technical Director of EEW SPC.
Until now, the entire project has been on schedule, EEW SPC said. The steel construction of 40 of the total 67 monopiles has already been finished. The whole production is due to be completed by the end of June.
The Veja Mate OWF is located 95 km northwest from the island of Borkum in the German North Sea. When fully operational in 2018, the farm will produce over 1.6 TWh of electricity annually for 400,000 households in Germany.
Images: EEW SPC/Andreas Duerst, Studio 301