Dutch establishment Fabricom Offshore Services has secured a four-year maintenance contract from RWE Innogy for the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm in north of the island of Heligoland.
Scope of the contract covers inspection and maintenance of the 49 jacket foundations of the wind turbines and the transformer substation, along with the monopile foundations of the measurement mast.
Construction work on an operations and maintenance base and a control room, from which the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm will be managed, is currently underway at the site.
The maintenance work at the site will begin in summer 2014.
RWE Innogy Nordsee Ost wind farm project director Marcel Sunier said that the cost of maintaining foundations and wind turbines at sea is high because the stresses caused by waves and salt water are significantly higher at sea than on land.
"A good downstream logistics network and, in particular, expert service engineers are therefore a key requirement for ensuring reliable and cost-effective operations at sea," added Sunier.
The Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm is expected to have an installed capacity of around 295MW, when completed in spring 2015.
The electricity generated by the wind farm will be enough to power around 300,000 households annually.
Image: Inspection of a foundation structure at Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm. Photo: courtesy of RWE Innogy.