The GeoSea division of the DEME Group’s offshore marine engineering division and Siemens have concluded an EPCI foundation contract for the Hohe See offshore wind farm.

The 7MW Siemens turbines will have a rotor diameter of 154 metres

The 7MW Siemens turbines have a rotor diameter of 154 metres

The new contract confirms Germany as a key market for the Belgian dredging, environmental and marine engineering group following its recent acquisition of the offshore assets and personnel from its former German partner Hochtief.

The Hohe See offshore wind farm which is owned equally by Enbridge and EnBW is situated approx. 90kms north of the island of Borkum in the German North Sea with EnBW in charge of the development and the day by day running of the wind farm once it is operational. The project will cover an area of around 40 square kilometres with water depths of up to 39m. With a total installed capacity of 497MW, the Hohe See wind farm is currently the biggest planned offshore wind project in Germany. The GeoSea contract includes the design, engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of 71 foundations consisting of a grounded monopole and its associated transition piece. Turbine installation is scheduled to start in the first half of 2018.

DEME has a long track record in the German marine infrastructure market dating back from 1968 through its subsidiary Nordsee Nassbagger und Tiefbau GMBH in Bremen and was an early pioneer in the development of offshore wind in most of Europe.

Christopher Iwens, General Manager DEME’s German subsidiaries commented, “The conclusion of this contract is a great achievement and consolidates the company’s presence in Germany. The Hohe See offshore wind project preparatory phase will be taken care of by our specialist teams located in our new offices in Bremen.” The company is continuing its large recruitment campaign to work on this new contract.

“After successful participation in a series of other offshore wind farms in Germany (Nordsee One, Godewind, EnBW Baltic II, Borkum Riffgrund 1, Amrumbank, Alpha Ventus and Borkum West II), the Hohe See contract is an important demonstration of the client’s trust in GeoSea’s expertise based on a combination of high tech, know-how and entrepreneurship.”

The turbines to be used on this project will have a rotor diameter of 154 metres. These will be Siemen’s units, each one capable of producing 7MW. The total cost of this wind farm is estimated at €1.8 billion and the HoHe See project is part of a major expansion of wind power installations in Germany’s sector of the North Sea. It is estimated that this wind farm will generate enough power to supply 352,000 homes. The wind turbines will connect in to the existing transmission infrastructure of the BorWin3 Converter with two export cables operating at 155 kV. The array cable length is estimated at 100kms.

By Dag Pike

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