Seabed preparation work has begun at the 402 MW Veja Mate offshore wind farm located 95 km northwest from the island of Borkum in the German North Sea.
The wind farm will consist of 67 Siemens 6 MW turbines using the world’s largest monopiles. A 2-layered scour protection system, designed to avoid natural scour erosion, using stones of select size and thickness, will allow for the post installation of the monopiles.
Actual foundation installation is scheduled for April 2016, marking the construction start of the project.
Rasmus Miller, Foundation Package Manager, said: “A lot of hard work, from both our contractors, and our Veja Mate project team has been done to get ready for the seabed preparation. Beginning pre-construction work just 6 months after funding is an extremely short time schedule; I am happy that the Foundation Package has got off to a good start.”
The Veja Mate Offshore Project is a EUR 1.9 billion investment, and is one of 9 German offshore projects that received funding in mid-2015. When fully operational in 2018, the farm will produce over 1.6 TWh of electricity annually for 400,000 households in Germany. Revenue is expected to be EUR 1m per day.
The three sponsors of the project are the Highland Group, Siemens Financial Services, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.