Van Oord’s heavy lift installation vessel Svanen successfully completed the installation of 60 monopiles at the Arkona offshore wind project, making the first contours of the 385 MW wind farm in the German Baltic Sea visible, the company said in its press release.
E.ON awarded Van Oord the contract for the transport and installation of the monopiles and transition pieces. Currently, Van Oord is installing the transition pieces. The Arkona offshore wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned in 2019, and it will be able to supply renewable energy to 400,000 households. Besides E.ON, the energy company Statoil also has a 50-percent stake in the project and has been involved from the start.
Smart techniques minimised the impact of the installation work. During pile-driving operations a Hydro Sound Damper (HSD) was used. It was attached to the piling frame on the Svanen. This net, containing air-filled elastic balloons and special PE foam elements, formed a curtain around the monopile and reduced underwater noise. Van Oord also laid bubble curtains on the seabed around the pile-driving location. These bubble curtains released bubbles of air that rose to the surface to form a barrier around the Svanen, breaking acoustic waves and further reducing noise levels.
Van Oord deployed its innovative FaunaGuard system, which it developed in-house. This acoustic device safely and temporarily deters various marine fauna species and uses special underwater acoustics to prevent potential hearing loss to porpoises. FaunaGuard has proven itself during use on several other projects, like the Gemini and Luchterduinen offshore wind farms.