First Borkum Riffgrund 2 Suction Bucket Jacket Marries Its Turbine

Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s jack-up vessel Bold Tern has installed the first MHI Vestas 8MW turbine on a suction bucket jacket foundation at the Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farm.

Bold Tern completed its fifth installation round last week at Ørsted’s wind farm in the German North Sea, which now comprises a total of 20 turbines.

The vessel is currently located in the Port of Esbjerg, Denmark, where it is loading the sixth batch of turbines destined for the project.

Earlier this month, GeoSea’s jack-up Innovation installed the first out of a total of 20 suction bucket jacket foundations at the offshore site some 54km off the coast of Lower Saxony.

In addition to the suction bucket jackets, the wind farm’s 56 MHI Vestas 8MW turbines will be mounted on 36 monopile foundations, which were installed at the end of last month.

The 450MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farm is expected to be fully operational in 2019.