Effective works Phase 2 - 3
2011 : week 32
Due to the bad weather conditions no progress on the offshore works this week
Fabrication and assemblage of the steel structures for the Jacket foundations are ongoing at different yards all over the world, (Belgium-Netherlands-United Kingdom-Poland-Germany-Spain-South Korea).80 % of the jackets for phase II are constructed.The base materials for the jackets of phase III are purchased and the construction of midsections started.
The pile driving works started in area B of the windfarm on Wednesday 6th of April 2011. Steel piles of 40 to 50 m are driven into the seabed by a hammer installation mounted on the jack up platform Buzzard. These so called "pin-piles" are the anchors to seal the jacket foundations into the seabed.The length of the piles depends on the soil conditions.To assure the correct locations of the piles a template is lowered onto the seabed.
The pin-piles for the foundation of the offshore transformer station are already driven.The foundation construction is completed and the OTS jacket installation offshore is waiting for good weather.
In area B all the pin-piles are driven and in area A 70 % of the pin-piles are complete
The Heavy Lift Vessel "Rambiz" installed the first jacket foundation in area B on Sunday 12/06/2011 and on Tuesday 14/06/2011 this foundation was grouted to the pin-piles.Today 11 foundations out of the 24 for area B are installed and grouted.
The 33 kV infield cables, making the future connection between the wind turbines were picked up in Karlskrona, Sweden, on the 23th of July and are transported to Zeebruge by the cable lay vessel CS Sovereign. The ship is now waiting on good weather to start infield cable laying.
The procurement of the raw materials for the 150 kV export cable is ongoing and the manufacturing started in Karlskrona, Sweden. This export cable is the second connection between the windfarm and the land cables
The steelstructure of the Offshore Transformer Station is in erection in the workyard of HSM Schiedam, Netherlands.The erection of the 1st and 2nd main deck sections are complete. Erection of the mezzanine deck is complete. Construction of the roof deck started.
Repower, the contractor for the wind turbines, started purchasing parts of the wind turbines.Following anticipated production start dates have been announced by REpower:the towers by AMBAU-Cuxhaven Germany from September 2011, the blades by LM Glasfiber Holding Denmark from August 2011, the generators by VEM Germany from October 2011 and the gearboxes by 2 constructors, WINERGY-Vörde Germany from August 2011 and HANSEN-Belgium from October 2011.
Directional drillings were executed on land for the 150 kV cable laying onshore which is about to start half of September this year. The Factory Acceptance Tests on the land cables are planned on 10 and 11th of August.