Harland and Wolff (H&W) has won the supply contract for suction buckets for Dong Energy’s 450MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 German offshore wind farm.
The contract to the Northern Ireland-based marine manufacturer was given by ST3 Offshore, the jacket foundation supplier of the project.
Under the contract terms, H&W will handle the manufacturing and exporting of a considerable number of suction buckets. The contract is to result in the creation of up to 80 jobs in Belfast, Ireland.
Harland and Wolff business development director Jonathan Guest said: “H&W is delighted to be involved in the Borkum Riffgrund 2 project, continuing to support manufacturing jobs in Belfast and contributing to UK exports.
“We are committed to the retention of manufacturing skills in Northern Ireland and projects such as this enable us to both develop our in-house capability and support the local supply chain.”
The manufactured suction buckets by H&W will be shipped from the UK to the advanced serial manufacturing plant of ST3 Offshore in Poland at Stettin, Poland. In the Polish plant, the suction buckets will be arranged for fitting before next year’s foundation installation in the German Bight of the North Sea.
ST3 Offshore UK managing director Norman Skillen said: “ST3 Offshore continues to see future possibilities for the UK offshore wind supply chain and we are delighted that H&W can play a key role in the competitive production of suction bucket jackets for the Borkum Riffgrund 2 project.”
According to H&W, the suction bucket design comprises three legs. These are jointly welded into a jacket structure which will stand over three massive giant suction buckets which will anchor the offshore steel foundation to the seabed.
ST3 Offshore will engineer 20 suction bucket jackets for the offshore wind farm project.
Dong Energy’s Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farm will feature 56 turbines along with two types of steel foundations, monopoles and suction bucket jackets. The offshore wind farm is likely to be fully operational in the first half of 2019.
It is located 54km from the Lower Saxony coast, near Dong Energy’s Borkum Riffgrund 1 wind farm.
Image: A jacket foundation from Dong Energy’s Borkum Riffgrund 1 offshore wind farm complete with suction buckets. Photo: courtesy of Harland and Wolff.