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RWE and TotalEnergies have signed an agreement with ARC marine for the supply of 66 reef cubes, which will be installed at eleven wind turbine foundations at the OranjeWind offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.
Foundation installation at OranjeWind will start in 2026, and once the construction of the offshore wind farm is completed, the reef cubes will be placed at turbine foundations in what the developers say will be one of the biggest deployments of artificial reef structures at a wind farm in the North Sea to date.
The 66 reef cubes will create 1,440 square metres of surface habitat. Each reef cube weighs almost 6,000 kilogrammes, is 1.5 metres tall and is made of low-carbon, recycled materials that are certified safe for the marine environment. Shell materials will be included in the mix to promote native oyster settlement and long-term habitat formation. The cuboid design of the cubes is proven for stability, efficient transport and ease of deployment, RWE said in a press release on 4 December.
The reef cubes will remain in place for the full operational lifetime of OranjeWind.
Earlier this year, RWE installed around 75,000 reef cubes developed by the nature-inclusive technology designer ARC marine at the Rampion offshore wind farm in the UK.
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The 795 MW OranjeWind will be located 53 kilometres from the Dutch coast, where 53 Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbines will be installed.
Construction on OranjeWind will start in 2026, with wind turbine installation work scheduled to start in early 2027. The wind farm commissioning is expected to be fully completed in early 2028.
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