Tekmar to Keep Merkur Cables Protected

UK-based cable protection systems (CPS) specialist Tekmar Energy has been awarded a contract with Tideway B.V, part of DEME Group, to supply 150 of its TekLink CPS units for the 396MW Merkur offshore wind farm project in the German part of the North Sea.

The supply for the contract will be executed in Tekmar’s new facility in the North East of England and manufacturing is expected to be completed early next year for offshore installation starting in 2017.

James Ritchie, CEO at Tekmar said: “We are extremely pleased Tideway have selected to use the TekLink® Cable Protection System for this project and it further demonstrates their confidence in our product and team. This project will be utilising the 7th generation CPS which has recently been harmonised to accelerate offshore installation works and approved by DNV.”

Merkur offshore wind farm is located approximately 45km north of the islands of Borkum. It will consist of 66 GE Haliade 150-6MW wind turbines and generate approximately 1,750 GWh of power annually, once complete.

The EUR 1.6 billion project reached the financial close in August 2016.

Tideway is in charge of the installation of inter-array cables on the wind farm. The Dutch company will deploy its new subsea cable installation/trenching vessel Living Stone, currently under construction at LaNaval shipyard in Spain, to carry out the installation works.

This will be the first project for Living Stone following its delivery scheduled for the second quarter of 2017.

The wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned in 2019.