RWE completes Kaskasi offshore substation installation

Work is also underway to install the 342MW project's 38 monopile foundations

RWE has completed installation of the 1400-tonne substation at the 342MW Kaskasi offshore wind farm off Germany.

The substation topside was manufactured by Bladt Industries and was installed on a monopile foundation by floating heavy lift vessel Gulliver.

Foundation installation works are also underway at Kaskasi, which is RWE’s sixth wind farm off the German coast and is being built 35km north of the island of Heligoland.

Seaway 7’s Strashnov, DEME’s Neptune and Sea Challenger and Fred Olsen Windcarrier’s Blue Tern are engaged in the installation of 38 monopiles and transition pieces, RWE said.

The foundations, each up to 64 metres long, weigh up to 740 tonnes.

The operations and processes at the offshore construction site are coordinated by the RWE control room on Heligoland.

To install the foundations into the seabed at depths of 18 to 25 metres, RWE is utilising two installation methods – conventional hammering and innovative vibro pile driving technology, which has the potential to reduce underwater noise emissions, it said.