First monopile installed at Baltic Power site

It is the first offshore wind farm in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea, and sign of the country’s determination to install a significant amount.

In November, ministers and industry leaders announced plans at a conference to build out, opening up more waters in the Baltic Sea to offshore wind.

Orlen, which is state owned, says 11 ships have set sail to begin the works, joined by Van Oord’s heavy-lift installation vessel Svanen, which has been reported as already installing the first monopile at the site.

Svanen, says Van Oord, has been given a recent upgrade with a gantry crane extended by 25 metres to meet the demands of growing turbines.

Van Oord has also announced that its cable-laying vessel Nexus, by Damen Shipyards, has been installed with a series of advanced catalytic reduction systems to reduce its emissions.

Five SCR units have been installed, one for each engine, the company says, making the vessel fully Tier III compliant.

Two Polish firms last week signed a Letter of Intent to build wind farm support vessels, ‘to prioritise the use of local resources and expertise, enhancing the role of Polish shipyards and domestic businesses in the global supply chain’.

The Baltic Power wind farm turbines will have 15MW generation capacity and there will be 78 of them to produce a total of 1.2GW by 2026, powering 1.5 million households.