The first batch of eight monopile foundations for turbines to be installed at RWE’s offshore wind project, Thor, have been offloaded and stored at the base port of Eemshaven in the Netherlands.
The monopiles are 100 meters in length and weigh 1,500 tons apiece. A total of 72 of these foundations are set to be handled in Eemshaven.
“The arrival of the first batch of monopiles at the port marks an important milestone in the delivery of our Thor project, Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date,” says Thomas Michel, COO of RWE Offshore Wind.
“The construction of offshore wind farms requires large port capacity and special port infrastructure to handle the heavy components. Such capacities are becoming increasingly difficult to find. We are delighted to have secured the Buss Terminal once again. The facilities at Eemshaven port are ideal. We recently used the port to support the construction of our Kaskasi wind farm.”
Buss Terminal Eemshaven, part of the Hamburg-based Terminal operator Buss Ports, provides storage space, heavy unloading equipment and operators at the port, whilst also managing the port logistics. Next spring foundations are slated to be shipped from the Dutch heavy-lift terminal in Eemshaven to the Thor construction site in the Danish North Sea, located 22 kilometers off the west coast of Jutland.
The turbine installation works are scheduled to be carried out from the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, starting in 2026. The Port of Thorsminde is set to serve as an O&M base. Construction of the new service building for RWE is expected to start later this year.
The 1 GW wind farm is expected to be fully operational in 2027.
