Wind turbine installation is expected to start soon at Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3 and Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farms in Germany as Seaway7’s newbuild Seaway Ventus , which has been hired to do the work, arrived in Europe.
Seaway Ventus was built by China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) at its shipyard in Nantong, Jiangsu province, from where the vessel departed in November 2023 and arrived in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, earlier this month before leaving for Esbjerg, Denmark.
Currently en route to Esbjerg, Seaway Ventus will mobilise for its first project there, the installation of wind turbines at the Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms.
The two offshore wind farms, which Ørsted is building concurrently in the German North Sea, will together have 106 Siemens Gamesa’s SG 11.0-200 DD wind turbines, with 83 units to be installed on the 913 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 and 23 on the 253 MW Gode Wind 3.
The wind turbines will be mounted on monopile foundations, which are now all in place at Gode Wind 3, with foundation installation on Borkum Riffgrund 3 underway.
Gode Wind 3 is expected to be commissioned this year while Borkum Riffgrund 3 is scheduled to come online in 2025.
As for Seaway7’s new jack-up vessel, the order with CMHI was placed by OHT back in 2020, when the vessel was dubbed VIND1.
The following year, Subsea7 and OHT established Seaway7 ASA as a standalone company , after combining their respective fixed foundation offshore wind businesses. Shortly after that, Seaway7 secured the contract for Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3, the first contract since the combination was completed.
Seaway Ventus is a GustoMSC NG-14000XL design and is said to be amongst the world’s largest jack-up installation vessels, designed specifically to transport and install next-generation offshore wind turbines and XL monopile foundations.
The new vessel, capable of installing wind turbine components in water depths of 65 metres and up to a height of up to 182 metres above the sea, features a telescopic leg-encircling crane with a maximum lifting capacity of 2,500 tonnes in retracted mode and 1,600 tonnes in extended mode.