Vattenfall is preparing to deploy two vessels in search of naval mines and shipwrecks in the area of the Danish North Sea where the Vesterhav Syd and Vesterhav Nord offshore wind farms will be built.
Archaeologists, mine clearers, Vattenfall employees and underwater survey specialists will be on board the ship Olympic Delta over the next two to three weeks to carry out the survey of the North Sea seabed where the two wind farms will be constructed.
Alongside Olympic Delta, a smaller ship, the Katabatic, which is able to sail in shallower waters, will carry out surveys close to shore.
“A geophysical survey of Vesterhav Syd and Nord was undertaken in 2017, and we found 22 points of interest at each of the forthcoming wind farms, in addition to some large areas where the changes in the magnetic field gave rise to measurements that were unclear,” said Vattenfall’s senior geophysicist Dorthe Reng Erbs-Hansen , who has overall responsibility for the work.
”Generally, you can expect one to five per cent of fields which have been highlighted to contain dangerous objects. But we often find other interesting things such as old anchors and perhaps old wrecks.”
Archaeologists from Strandingsmuseum St. George in Thorsminde will examine the findings from three potential shipwrecks in the area at Vesterhav Nord.
When Olympic Delta is finished with the work offshore Western Denmark, it will continue to the Baltic Sea to study the area where Vattenfall is to build the Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm.
About the projects
The construction of Vesterhav Syd and Vesterhav Nord is scheduled to begin next year off the west coast of Jutland. The two wind farms will comprise a total of 41 Siemens Gamesa 8MW turbines scheduled for commissioning in 2020.
The 605MW Kriegers Flak wind farm will consist of 72 Siemens Gamesa 8MW turbines and is expected to be fully operational by 2021.