Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) has won a new contract with Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm Limited to begin the second half of foundation installation off the North Wales coast.
SHL’s crane vessel ‘Stanislav Yudin’ will go to Liverpool Bay in May this year to install the last 80 of the 160 monopile foundations and 32 transition pieces.
The first 80 locations were completed with monopiles in December 2012 using the same vessel.
CEO at Seaway Heavy Lifting, Jan Willem van der Graaf , said: “We are delighted to have been awarded a third contract to transport and install more foundation components for Gwynt y Môr. Again we will use all our knowledge and experience to support RWE to remain on schedule and to contribute to the success of the project.”
RWE npower renewables’ Gwynt y Môr Project Director, Toby Edmonds said: “The ‘Stanislav Yudin’ is returning to Gwynt y Môr following a very successful campaign last year. It will be working alongside RWE’s own vessel, Friedrich Ernestine, which has been operating throughout the winter carrying out drilling operations then grouting and installing transition pieces.”
At 576MW, Gwynt y Môr is one of the largest offshore wind farms currently in construction in Europe. It is a shared investment between partners RWE Innogy, Stadtwerke München GmbH and Siemens.
Once fully operational, energy generation from Gwynt y Môr is expected to be equivalent to the average annual needs of around 400,000 homes.
Foundation construction is taking place from Gwynt y Môr’s Base Harbour Port Facility in Birkenhead where the components have been arriving since last year from the manufacturer EEW/Bladt in Germany. The monopiles and transition pieces will be taken out to the offshore construction field by barge ready for installation by the ‘Stanislav Yudin’.
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Press release, March 11, 2013