Engineering and services group Bilfinger will test steel foundations for the Wikinger offshore wind farm project in the Baltic Sea on behalf of Spanish energy supplier Iberdrola. Beginning in 2016, 70 wind turbines would be installed in water depths of up to 42m north-east of the German island of Rügen. The order for the manufacture, installation and testing of several test piles is worth approx. EUR 20M. Bilfinger will deliver the necessary steel foundations from its own production.
“The project is an important step forward for our offshore business, one that will further expand our leading technological position in the construction of foundations for wind turbines on the open seas”, said Joachim Enenkel, member of the Executive Board at Bilfinger SE. In order to optimise the design and manufacture of the required foundations for the upcoming construction of the Wikinger wind farm, Bilfinger will drive steel piles that are up to 38m long into the seabed at the future location of the wind turbines this autumn. Tension and pressure tests will be conducted under water following a static period of several weeks. The findings gained in this way will lead to a technically and economically optimised solution for the wind turbine foundations.
In addition, Bilfinger will test noise protection systems to keep the noise pollution for marine fauna during the construction phase to a minimum.
