REpower Systems SE and Belgian offshore project development company C-Power NV yesterday installed the world’s most powerful offshore turbine, 28 kilometres off the port of Oostende.
The turbine with a rated power of 6.15 megawatts (MW) is the first of 48 REpower 6M to be constructed in the phases 2 and 3 of the Belgian offshore wind farm Thornton Bank. In the early hours of 21 March the rotor star was connected to the nacelle by a team of C-Power and REpower engineers and the crew of Neptune, the installation vessel of GeoSea (DEME group) carrying the components for the turbine.
Now the vessel Neptune is returning to the harbour of Oostende where the components for the next turbine will be loaded. The erection teams stay at the accommodation jack-up barge Vagant, which moves from one turbine to the next,for the whole installation process. The offshore turbine REpower 6M has the dimension of two family homes and the rotor star has a diameter of 126 metres, with a swept area greater than two football pitches.
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Offshore WIND Staff, March 21, 2012; Image: REpower Systems