Mammoet selected to marshal over 100 XL monopile foundations for RWE’s offshore wind farms Nordseecluster A and Thor

The heavy transport specialist will move over 100 monopiles for wind turbines over the course of a year on site.

Mammoet has signed a contract with Buss Ports to marshal wind turbine generator foundations for two of Europe’s biggest offshore wind farm projects – RWE’s Nordseecluster A (Germany) and Thor (Denmark).

The Nordseecluster, with a planned capacity of up to 1.6 GW, is one of the largest offshore wind energy projects in Germany and will be constructed in two phases (A & B). Thor, with a planned capacity of more than 1 GW to power more than one million homes, is Denmark’s largest to date.

Mammoet will manage the phased load-in, temporary storage and load-out of 116 XXL monopiles for both wind farm projects at Buss Terminal Eemshaven in the Netherlands. The largest foundations will weigh around 1,700 tonnes and measure 96 meters in length.

The monopiles will be offloaded onto the quay using a RoRo linkspan ramp and transported using Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) fitted with saddles.

The SPMT trailers will then drive the monopiles onto storage dunes, ready to be called off and shipped to the wind farms located in the German and Danish waters of the North Sea.

Wouter Santen, Project Manager at Mammoet, said: “This is a complex marshalling operation, with large components for both farms needing to be moved and managed on a single site.

Combining our specialist heavy transport equipment with our engineering experience of monopile handling, we are delighted to support the development of these significant offshore wind projects concurrently.”

Marc Wegman, Managing Director of Buss Terminal Eemshaven, added: “Mammoet has a proven track record for managing the movement of monopiles safely and efficiently. Having them by our side during the planning stage has been invaluable. We look forward to working with them as we move into the assembly phase.”