Van Oord has completed the transport and installation of all 21 monopiles for Iberdrola’s 315MW Windanker offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea, marking a key milestone for the project, the company said on Thursday.
The work involved installing the largest monopiles the contractor has handled to date, enabled by upgrades to its heavy-lift installation vessel Svanen. Van Oord’s scope included loading the foundations in Spain, transporting them to the Port of Rønne in Denmark and lifting them with MTC cranes before transferring them to the Svanen for installation.
The monopiles, produced by a joint venture between Navantia and Windar, have diameters of 10 metres, lengths ranging from 70.6 to 86.6 metres and weights of up to 2,145 tonnes.
Van Oord said it used bubble screens and a Hydro Sound Damper net to reduce underwater noise during installation. Renewable fuel powered the bubble-screen compressors, cutting greenhouse gas emissions for this activity by up to 86%. The initiative was delivered jointly with Iberdrola, Van Oord and Hydrotechnik Offshore, who shared the costs of the alternative fuel.
As part of a pilot project with Skyports Drone Services, long-range drones were deployed to transport items offshore, making Van Oord the first marine contractor to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights to vessels at a wind farm under construction.
“Completing the transport and installation of all monopiles at the Windanker offshore wind farm marks an important milestone for the project,” said Joost van Wiechen, project manager at Van Oord. “This achievement reflects the dedication and expertise of our teams, the excellent collaboration with our client Iberdrola, and the outstanding performance of the Svanen. We are proud to have installed our largest and heaviest monopile to date, which demonstrates our commitment to enhancing the energy transition and delivering sustainable solutions for the future.”
Once operational, Windanker will add 315MW of capacity to Iberdrola’s Baltic Hub, generating renewable electricity for around 315,000 households. Van Oord’s remaining scope includes installing 21 transition pieces by December 2025 and inter-array cables in the first quarter of 2026.
