Danish renewable energy company Ørsted has awarded a contract to Sif for the production of 47 monopiles for the 752MW Borssele I-II offshore wind project in the Dutch North Sea.
Image: The Borssele I-II offshore wind project will feature 94 8.0-167 DD turbines from Siemens Gamesa. Photo: courtesy of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A.
The Borssele I-II offshore wind project, which will feature 94 8.0-167 direct drive turbines from Siemens Gamesa, is being built nearly 22km off the coast of Zeeland. The Dutch offshore wind farm will be spread over an area of 138km2 in water depths of up to 38m.
The turbines of the Borssele I-II offshore wind project will be installed on 94 monopile foundations with transition pieces.
Sif said that the production of monopiles, which have a combined weight of around 40 Kton, is slated to begin in 2019.
Sif commercial manager Richard Jongen said: “This is the first time Sif is going to manufacture the offshore foundations for a wind project on behalf of Ørsted.
“With our new assembly facility and state-of-the-art deep-sea quay on Maasvlakte II (Port of Rotterdam), Sif is ideally located and perfectly equipped to efficiently produce and deliver the monopile foundations.
“Sif is very pleased to contribute to a successful offshore wind project off the Dutch coast such as Borssele I-II.”
Upon its commissioning, which is expected to be in 2020, the Borssele I-II offshore wind project will generate enough power to meet the annual electricity consumption of nearly a million households.
Further, the Dutch offshore wind project is estimated to offset more than a million tonnes of carbon dioxide and 25,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide emissions annually.
Apart from the contract for the Borssele I-II offshore wind project, Sif also holds the contract to supply 77 monopiles for the 731.5MW Borssele III & IV offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea. The contract was awarded to Sif in April 2018 by Van Oord, which, in turn, is the EPCI contractor for the project.
The Blauwwind consortium is developing the Borssele III & IV offshore wind farm. Shell and Eneco Group had signed 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the consortium, under which each will buy 50% of the power generated by the wind farms.