Jan De Nul Group’s newest crane vessel, Les Alizés, has kicked off its maiden assignment by installing the first of 107 monopile foundations at Ørsted’s Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms in Germany.

Delivered in early 2023, Les Alizés arrived in the Dutch Eemshaven at the end of June, where the first monopiles were loaded before departing to the installation location in the German North Sea.

At the beginning of this year, Jan De Nul selected BOW Terminal’s marshalling yard in Eeemshaven for the two offshore wind projects.

BOW Terminal will offer the marshalling services for the project at their new location in Eemshaven, based in the Beatrix harbour in the northern part of the Province Groningen.

Jan De Nul and Ørsted signed a contract in October 2021. Les Alizés will transport and install 106 wind turbine monopile foundations and one offshore substation foundation, including the associated topside for the German offshore wind projects.

Both projects will feature 11 MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines.

Ørsted will use monopiles without transition pieces. Before installation, scour protection will be installed at all 107 locations.

The TP-less monopiles will be manufactured by Bladt Industries and Steelwind Nordenham.

The 913 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 will be located adjacent to Ørsted’s existing offshore wind farms Borkum Riffgrund 1 and Borkum Riffgrund 2. The 253 MW Gode Wind 3 will be close to Ørsted’s Gode Wind 1 and 2.

Ørsted won the rights to develop Borkum Riffgrund 3 at the German auction held in 2018 by bidding EUR 0, making it the world’s first large-scale offshore wind farm to be awarded with a zero bid.

Once completed, the offshore wind farms will generate enough renewable electricity to power 1.2 million German households.