The first transition pieces (TPs) for the 960 MW He Dreiht offshore wind project were transported last week from Smulders’ yard in Hoboken, Belgium, to Newcastle, England.
At Smulders’ Newcastle yard, the company will do the outer welding, coating, and final assembly of the transition pieces.
On behalf of EnBW, the joint venture Sif-Smulders is manufacturing the 64 transition pieces for the He Dreiht offshore wind project in the German North Sea.
The TPs will be up to 30 metres high and close to 8.5 metres in diameter. Each TP will weigh more than 700 tonnes, including secondary steel, said Smulders.
The transition pieces will be installed on top of monopiles that will be delivered by Steelwind Nordenham, which received an order from EnBW in May last year.
Bureau Technical Services will carry out manufacturing surveillance and supervision on both of the awarded packages across Sif and multiple Smulders European manufacturing facilities in the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark.
In April 2022, the wind farm’s developer awarded Heerema Marine Contractors with the contract to transport and install the 64 monopiles and transition pieces for the project.
During the installation operations, Heerema will use the IHC IQIP double-walled noise mitigation system NMS-10,000 amongst other systems to reduce noise pollution, according to the company.
Located approximately 85 kilometres northwest of the Island of Borkum and about 110 kilometres west of Heligoland, He Dreiht will comprise a total of 64 Vestas turbines with an individual output of 15 MW.
The offshore wind farm is scheduled to go into operation in 2025.