Van Oord is using the new berth at the Cuxport Terminal in Cuxhaven for the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind project, Cuxport informed, saying that the berth no. 4 has thus become the location for its first offshore project even before its official launch.
The Deutsche Bucht’s Balance of Plant (BoP) contractor Van Oord will utilise a total capacity of 8.5 hectares of space at the new heavy-lift berth to store and transport the monopiles and transition pieces for Northland Power’s 269MW wind farm, currently being built in the German Exclusive Economic zone (EEZ) in the North Sea.
All 31 transition pieces (TPs) for the wind farm’s monopile foundations have already been shipped from Spain to Cuxhaven on board the Happy Star vessel, and lifted onto the quay at berth no. 4 by the vessel’s own crane, and stored in their installation sequence.
The 31 monopiles are being transported by a barge from Rostock to Cuxhaven and will be lifted directly from the barge to the installation vessel that is jacked up in front of new berth at Cuxport Terminal.
The jack-up vessel will then also load out the transition pieces from the terminal and set sail from Cuxhaven to the offshore construction site, located about 95 kilometres northwest of the island of Borkum.
“By using the ship’s own cranes, it’s possible to complete the project without any shore crane. The fact that this new berth is being used for this project so soon after its completion shows how essential it is,” said Roland Schneider , Head of Business Development at Cuxport.
Rhenus Offshore Logistics is the port agent for the project, including the customs clearance and the crew changes.
The Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm will comprise 33 MHI Vestas V164-8.0MW turbines , optimized to be able to reach an output of 8.4MW, 31 of which will be supported by monopiles and two will be installed on mono bucket foundations .