The Anonymous Widower

German Company To Build XXL Monopile Factory in Denmark

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.

This is the sub-heading.

German-based Baltic Structures Company (BSC) has revealed that it will build an XXL monopile production factory in Esbjerg, Denmark

These are the first three paragraphs that outline the project.

BSC will build “Europe’s biggest” foundation fabrication site in the Esbjerg Port where it will be able to offer various foundations structures with a more than 100,000-square-metre production area under the roof and an output of up to 200 XXL monopiles per year.

The German company said that the focus of the plant is on structures with dimensions of up to 15 metres in diameter, up to 130 metres in length, and single unit weights of up to 4,000 tonnes.

In addition to monopiles, transition pieces, pin piles, and components for jackets, floating foundations will also be offered, said BSC.

These last three paragraphs sum up, where we are at the moment with European wind turbine foundation manufacture.

In September 2022, Esbjerg Port (Denmark), Oostende Port (Belgium), Groningen Seaports/Eemshaven (the Netherlands), Niedersachsen Port/Cuxhaven (Germany), Nantes-Saint Nazaire Port (France), and Humber (the UK) signed a partnership agreement with an aim to minimise capacity issues.

At the beginning of this year, the six largest European wind ports also signed a mutual declaration to collaborate on an operational and practical level to help bring the new offshore wind capacities across Europe as smoothly as possible.

In January, the Port of Esbjerg, together with US-based Moffatt & Nichol, deployed digital twin technology which could triple the port’s offshore wind capacity.

I also wrote UK And South Korea Help Secure Millions For World’s Largest Monopile Factory, this morning about a new monopole factory on Teesside.

• The Teesside factory is described as the world’s largest.
• On the other hand the Esbjerg Port facility is described as Europe’s biggest foundation fabrication site.

I suspect the Germans and the Koreans are using different engineering dictionaries.

European Offshore Wind Power Targets

Out of curiosity, I looked up the offshore wind capacity, the UK and neighbouring countries are planning before 2030.

• UK – 50 GW
• Germany – 30 GW
• Norway – 30 GW
• The Netherlands – 21 GW
• France – 18 GW
• Denmark – 13 GW
• Italy – 10 GW
• Portugal – 10 GW
• Belgium – 5.4-5.8 GW
• Republic of Ireland – 5 GW
• Spain – 3 GW

Note.

1. Norway’s figure relates to 2040.
2. Northern Ireland have a target of 1 GW, which I assume is included in the UK total.
3. The total is between 195.4 and 195.8 GW.

Given that we could be producing over a quarter of Western Europe’s offshore wind power, the Gods of the Winds must have been British.

November 27, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | Denmark, Germany, Monopile Foundations, Offshore Wind Power, Wind Power, XXL Monopile