GeoSea’s jack-up vessel Innovation has installed all 56 turbine foundations at the 336MW Galloper offshore wind farm two months ahead of schedule, Galloper Wind Farm Limited reports.
The first of the foundations was installed 30 kilometers off the Suffolk coast in late December, with the final foundation completed on Tuesday, 28 March.
The Innovation was upgraded specifically to cope with the conditions at Galloper and to improve installation cycle times. This included bigger feet on the legs of the vessel and a new monopile sea fastening system.
The work had been expected to last until May, the developer said.
Galloper Project Director Toby Edmonds said: “GeoSea have set records with their barn-storming performance on Galloper. To achieve a cycle-time of within a week to collect and install four complete foundations in remarkable and certainly the fastest we’ve seen so far at innogy. To do this in winter makes it all the more impressive. The teams from Galloper and GeoSea have combined brilliantly to reach this major milestone completing the foundation installation stage efficiently and safely in such good time.”
GeoSea managed the installation of the foundations, each weighing about 1,200 tonnes and 85m long and 7.5m in diameter, with the monopiles and transition pieces produced by Sif Group and Smulders.
Components were loaded out on to the Innovation in Rotterdam and Vlissingen.
The offshore team is now preparing to start turbine installation on the wind farm, which, once complete in the spring of 2018, will have the capacity to generate enough power for up to 336,000 homes.
The offshore construction for the project is being coordinated out of the Port of Lowestoft with local firm James Fisher & Son supporting the marine and offshore activity.
The 6MW Siemens turbines are being pre-assembled at the purpose built assembly base at Peel Ports, Great Yarmouth, where a 120m crane will lift the turbines on to vessels to sail them to the site.
Construction of Galloper is being led by innogy SE on behalf of the project partners, the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital. The project represents an investment potential of around GBP 1.5 billion.