RWE has taken an important step in the construction of its offshore wind project Thor in the Danish North Sea: the first batch of eight monopile foundations for the wind turbines have been stored at the heavy-lift terminal of Eemshaven in the Netherlands. The monopiles are up to 100 m in length and weigh up to 1500 tonnes each. A total of 72 of these foundations will be handled in Eemshaven, with offshore for installation scheduled to start in spring 2025.
Thomas Michel, COO RWE Offshore Wind: “The arrival of the first batch of monopiles at the port marks an important milestone in the delivery of our Thor project – Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date. The construction of offshore wind farms requires large port capacity and special port infrastructure to handle the heavy components. Such capacities are becoming increasingly difficult to find. The facilities at Eemshaven port are ideal. We recently used the port to support the construction of our Kaskasi wind farm.”
During spring 2025, foundations will be shipped from Eemshaven to the Thor construction site in the Danish North Sea, located approximately 22 km off the west coast of Jutland.
Turbine installation works are scheduled to be carried out from the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, starting in 2026. The port of Thorsminde will serve as an operational and maintenance base. Construction of RWE’s new service building is expected to start later this year. The 1 GW wind farm is expected to be fully operational no later than end–2027.