The first four out of the total of 49 monopiles have been installed at the Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm site in Denmark and GeoSea’s installation vessel Innovation is now set to install the next batch.
The steel monopiles are 40-50m long and have a diameter of 6.5 metres. They are being driven about 30m into the seabed and, due to noise concerns, a support vessel is being used to place an air bubble installation on the seabed around the construction site. The installation creates a sound-absorbing, double layer of air bubbles that protect marine mammals in the area, Vattenfall said.
A2SEA – now a GeoSea subsidiary – will carry out the turbine installation works with its vessel Sea Installer , scheduled to start working at the site in the summer of 2018.
Horns Rev 3 will feature 49 MHI Vestas V164-8.0MW turbines, optimised at 8.3MW, scheduled to be commissioned in 2018.
Vattenfall pointed out that this is the first time in five years that an offshore wind farm will be built in Denmark.
“Horns Rev 3 is the first of three offshore farms that Vattenfall will construct in Denmark in the coming years. These wind farms will, in the highest degree, contribute to our strategy to have a fossil free energy production within one generation,” said Gunnar Groebler , head of Vattenfall´s Wind Business.
In addition to Horns Rev 3, Vattenfall will also construct the Danish Kriegers Flak, as well as Vesterhav South and North nearshore wind farms.