Germany's 402-MW Veja Mate installs 1/3 of monopiles

One-third of the monopiles at the 402-MW Veja Mate offshore wind project in the German North Sea are now in place.

Veja Mate contractor Offshore Wind Force (OWF) has so far installed 24 monopiles, according to an announcement on Thursday. The project, which moved into construction in April, remains on schedule, with full commissioning targeted by the end of 2017. The next step will be installation of transition pieces which will begin next week.

The EUR-1.9-billion (USD 2.1bn) scheme will use 67 Siemens 6-MW turbines. It is owned by the Highland Group Holdings Ltd, Siemens Financial Services and CI II managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

"It's quite an achievement to maintain installation speed of the world’s heaviest monopile with a newly-built mega jack-up vessel and balance the requirements from the authorities," said Rasmus Miller, foundation package manager. "After an initial learning curve, speed picked-up and on the 28th of May OWF was able to complete installation of two monopiles in a single day," Miller added.

EW Special Pipe Constructions GmbH (EEW SPC) announced in March it has produced what it said was the world's heaviest monopile for installation at Veja Mate.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.130)

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