E.ON informed today that the unexploded ordnance (UXO) removal at the Arkona offshore wind farm construction site in the German Baltic Sea has been completed.
The site, with an area of 39 square kilometers halfway between the island of Rügen and the Danish island of Bornholm, is now completely free of remains from the time of the Cold War as well as World Wars I and II, E.ON said, and the installation of the foundations can start in 2017 as planned.
The UXO works lasted for four months, starting with an examination of the seabed with cameras and sonars that identified more than 400 suspicious objects in depths of up to 37 meters. The potentially unexploded ordnance was approached using underwater robots and individually examined and 43 of those objects were identified as unexploded ordnance.
Since these objects were not highly explosive, they were recovered securely by specialist firms and handed over to the authorities in the port of Mukran in Sassnitz.
The project was carried out without incidents and within schedule and budget, E.ON pointed out.
The 385MW Arkona offshore wind farm will feature sixty Siemens 6MW wind turbines, expected to be fully commissioned in 2019. The turbine towers will be mounted on monopile foundations installed at depths of 23 to 37 meters.
The EUR 1.2 billion wind farm is equally owned by E.ON and Norway’s Statoil. The project represents Statoil’s first investment into German offshore wind market.
E.ON is responsible for the construction and subsequent operation of the wind farm.