The heaviest monopiles that the offshore wind industry has ever produced are being built in the Veja Mate wind farm. EEW Special Pipe Constructions GmbH manufactures them in Rostock. Built for a 6 MW turbine for the Veja Mate wind farm in the North Sea. It is located northwest of the island of Borkum at a distance of 115 kilometers from the East Frisian coast.
The monopile weighs a total of 1,302.5 tons, its diameter is 7.8 m, and it is 82.2 m long – a record in the world of offshore wind energy. 67 of these giants are being built in the Veja Mate wind farm.
The Big Bubble Barrier from HYDROTECHNIK LÜBECK provides the necessary underwater noise protection during pile driving.
Veja Mate wind farm supplies wind power for 400,000 households
The wind farm is located about 130 kilometers north of Eemshaven in the Netherlands in the North Sea. Therefore it is not visible from the coast. It extends over a total area of around 51 km² with water depths of 39–41 m, and the mean wind speed on-site is more than 10 m / s.
The Veja Mate offshore wind farm is expected to generate around 1.6 billion kilowatt-hours of wind power per year. This amount of electricity corresponds to the annual requirements of around 400,000 German households. The total investment amounts to 1.9 billion euros and is financed by the Highland Capital Group, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Siemens Financial Services (SFS). Behind the investment company, Highland is a Scottish lord who also finances other offshore wind energy projects.
Modern service concept
For the maintenance of the wind farm, Siemens wants to implement a modern service logistics concept specially tailored to the needs of offshore projects such as Veja Mate. Both helicopters and a special ship specially designed and built for this mission, a so-called “Service Operation Vessel” (SOV), are provided to maintain the systems. According to the company, the agreement for maintaining and repairing the turbines over 15 years is the largest wind service contract to date for Siemens in Germany and the second-largest worldwide.
