Now, the construction of Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm will soon begin.
On Sunday 20 November 2011, the floating crane Svanen arrived at Grenaa Harbour, and next month it will be used to prepare the floating crane for the installation of the 111 monopiles to be driven into the sea bed.
Svanen was built in Holland in 1990 for the construction of the Great Belt bridge, where its task was to lift the bridge spans on the western side into position as units of approx 6,000 tonnes each. Svanen is 103 metres long, 72 metres wide and 100 metres tall. Later, Svanen was used in connection with the construction of the Oresund bridge.
After a considerable upgrade in 1994, Svanen now has a lifting capacity of 8,700 tonnes and has just been involved in driving the monopoles at two of DONG Energy’s British offshore wind farms. Thus Svanen has placed the last 51 foundations in the Walney II Offshore Wind Farm and driven monopoles in the London Array Offshore Wind Farm.
Svanen is scheduled to leave Grenaa Harbour between Christmas and New Year to be ready at the first foundation position in the Anholt Offshore Wind Farm.
The first monopiles ready to be shipped from Bladt Industries in Aalborg
This very moment, the production of the monopiles is ongoing at Bladt Industries in Aalborg, and the first monopiles are ready for shipment. The monopiles are manufactured partly at Bladt Industries in Aalborg, partly at March Wind Technology in Herning which supplies the upper section with conic design.
At the same time, the contractor MT Højgaard is setting up the harbour area from where the monopiles are shipped.
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Offshore WIND staff, December 06, 2011; Image: dongenergy