Vorpommern-Rogen: Huge Pile Sunk: The First Foundation of a Wind Farm

West Pomerania Rügen
Sinking a huge pile: the first foundation of a wind farm

The first foundation for the Arcadis Ost 1 offshore wind farm was installed off Rügen. Parkwind and DEME Offshore announced Wednesday that it is a 2,100-ton steel pile that measures 9.5 meters in diameter and 110 meters in length. The pile is one of the largest of its kind ever installed. In the coming weeks, another 27 foundations will be built on the seabed off the coast of Rügen.

A special feature of the installation is the use of a floating crane instead of ships that connect to the sea floor with legs. According to the companies, it should be possible to install faster and also in areas where this was not possible before. The special ship “Orion” was used. It was fitted with a new winch by Liebherr in Rostock after the onboard winch was damaged and broke off during a test in early May 2020.

Arcadis Ost 1 is scheduled to become operational in 2023 and has an output of 257 megawatts. The wind farm should be able to provide electricity to nearly 300,000 households. 27 wind turbines will be installed off Rügen for this purpose. The foundation that has now been installed is intended to support the offshore substation of the wind farm.

dpa