In September, the first turbine was installed at the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm in the East Irish Sea, approximately 14 km from the nearest coast on Walney Island, Cumbria.
A total of 108 wind turbines will be installed by the Sea Installer and Pacific Orca , with the wind farm expected to be fully completed in 2014.
In an Offshore WindForce joint venture, Boskalis Offshore and Volker Stevin Offshore were responsible for the transport and installation of the 108 foundations for the wind farm. Before the monopiles were installed, the Boskalis Rockpiper, the largest fallpipe vessel in the Boskalis fleet, installed 108 perfectly round scour protection filter layers on the seabed.
Offshore WindForce was responsible for the timely delivery of the monopiles and transition pieces from Aalborg in Denmark to Belfast, a journey of 1,500 kilometers. In total, the chartered EIT Palmina undertook 22 voyages to deliver the 108 monopiles and transition pieces. By using the innovative buckets and gripper frames, the world’s largest hydrohammer and state-of-the-art survey equipment, the installation time of the foundations was cut with almost 40%.
VSMC, another joint venture between Boskalis and Volker Wessels is responsible for laying the export cable. After the installation of the cables, a Boskalis fallpipe vessel will place the final scour protection layer around the piles using 95,000 tons of rock.
Check out this video from Boskalis about its work on the West of Duddon Sands project:
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Offshore WIND Staff, November 7, 2013; Image: Boskalis