The Belgian specialist shipping company Jan De Nul has given the go-ahead for the installation campaign for the monopile foundations for RWE’s offshore wind farm “Thor”.
The heavy lift vessel “Les Alizés” installed the first of 72 monopiles for Denmark’s largest wind farm to date. Once completed, the wind farm will supply enough renewable energy to power more than one million Danish households.
The RWE wind farm “Thor” will have a capacity of more than one GW, bringing it significantly closer to the Danish targets for the energy transition. More than one million Danish households will be supplied with renewable energy generated in the North Sea. The 72 wind turbines will be erected near the west coast of Jutland, around 22 km off the coast.
Jan De Nul will play an important role in the construction of “Thor”
“Our offshore wind farm ‘Thor’, which is currently under construction, will be the largest in Denmark to date,” says Günther Fenle, Project Manager Thor at RWE. “The successful installation of the first monopile is a significant milestone that has been achieved thanks to the joint efforts of everyone involved. My thanks go to all colleagues and suppliers for their contribution so far.”
Jan De Nul will play an important role in the construction of “Thor”. In addition to the monopile foundation and scour protection installation, the company will also install the inter-array cable system and the export cables connecting the offshore and onshore substations.
“RWE’s ‘Thor‘ offshore wind farm is one of the key projects of 2025 for Jan De Nul,” said Philippe Hutse, CEO Offshore Energy at Jan De Nul. “This is another major step in building the energy transition and we are carrying out a wide range of work: from the installation of inter-array and export cables to scour protection and monopile foundations. We deploy several units from our ship fleet for the various specialist areas.”
“Les Alizés” handels up to 100 meters monopiles
The monopile foundations are up to 100 meters long and weigh up to 1,500 tons. “Les Alizés” picks up the foundations in Eemshaven, the Netherlands, and then sails to the installation site off the west coast of Jutland, near Thorsminde. The final installation of the monopiles is planned for the end of 2025.
The “Les Alizés” is equipped with a motion-compensated pile grab capable of installing monopile foundations with diameters of up to 13 meters. Thanks to its many unique features, high redundancy and unrivaled capacity in terms of power, speed and accuracy, the Jan De Nul pile grab enables the most flexible installation solutions for monopile foundations to be carried out in the most difficult conditions.
