The last autumn and winter storms had caused the planners of the Van Oord Gruppe general contractor a lot of trouble. In the Windpark Deutsche Bucht, there were delays due to bad weather and too high waves.
So that during the installation work, the noise level did not exceed the limit of 160 decibels within a radius of 750 meters around the construction site. A multi-level sound insulation concept was used, including the Double Big Bubble Barrier. However, from a wave height of 2 meters, working on deck is too dangerous for the crew.
In such cases, I leave the decision to my local crew. These are all experienced offshore technicians in dealing with the Big Bubble Barrier. They know exactly what is going on and when it will be dangerous. From my safe and warm office here in Lübeck, I do not interfere.
Cay Grunau, CEO Hydrotechnik Lübeck GmbH
Pile driving at Deutsche Bucht wind farm finished.
All 31 monopile foundations of Deutsche Bucht wind farm, which had to be rammed, are firmly anchored in the seabed. Actually, the installation of the monopiles should be completed by the end of 2018. But somehow, taking advantage of all the good weather windows, the last foundations were then installed on January 5.
Canadian company invests in the North Sea.
With an investment budget of approximately 1.4 billion euros, the Windpark Deutsche Bucht is the third offshore wind project of Northland Power in the North Sea, according to the company. The Canadian energy producer portfolio includes the German Windpark Nordsee One (332 MW) and 60 percent of the Dutch Windpark Gemini (600 MW).
Mono Buckets as wind turbine foundation.
At a distance of 95 kilometers to the island of Borkum, Windpark Deutsche Bucht is very far away from the German coast. Despite the distance investor Northland Power uses new technology. Two of the MHI Vestas V164-8.4 turbines are being built on Mono Buckets. These foundation structures consist of only one steel cylinder on which a monopile is mounted. They are installed by suction – this allows a low-noise and thus particularly environmentally friendly installation. According to Northern Power, Windpark Deutsche Bucht is the world’s first offshore wind farm to test Mono Buckets as a commercial operation wind turbine foundation.
