Van Oord installed the last jacket foundation for offshore wind farm East Anglia ONE and delivered it to client ScottishPower Renewables. This achievement marks the marine contractor’s completion of its work for this major UK wind project. As a main contractor, Van Oord transported and installed all 102 foundations. This is the largest number of three-legged wind turbine foundations ever installed offshore. Due to be completed in 2020, East Anglia ONE is expected to supply the equivalent of more than 630,000 British households with green electricity.
The lion’s share of the work took place at a depth of more than 40 metres in the North Sea at a location where the seas are often rough, the current strong and visibility minimal. In order to be able to install wind turbine foundations in these conditions, Van Oord developed a pile-driving template. The team used this template to drive the anchoring piles for each three-legged jacket foundation into the seabed with millimetre precision. Subsequently, the gigantic wind turbine foundations could be installed in the piles.
“Thanks to our ingenious working methods, the expertise of our project team and close cooperation with our partners and our client, we succeeded in installing all jacket foundations for wind farm East Anglia One smoothly and safely. We are proud to contribute to the UK’s energy transition.”
Logistical puzzle
Client ScottishPower Renewables outsourced the manufacture of the jacket foundations and anchoring piles to suppliers in the United Kingdom, Spain and the Middle East. Van Oord was involved in the logistics and transported some of the foundations to BOW Terminal Vlissingen, the storage and transhipment port for the wind turbine foundations. By working closely with all parties involved, Van Oord was able to load the right foundations on board the installation vessels at the right time and to respond to ad hoc changes in delivery and planning.