Van Oord has deployed more than 40 kilometres of its trencher Dig-It to bury the laid inter-array cables at the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm in Germany.
The Dutch maritime contracting company said that these cables form the connection between the turbines and the offshore substation and enable smooth dispatch and transfer of electricity to the mainland.
Every offshore wind park has a unique cable design. For the Deutsche Bucht project, Van Oord’s cable laying vessel Nexus installed a smart web of cables at 40 metres water depth.
The inter array grid was designed to guarantee reliable and safe transmission of the generated electricity. The vessel installed at a rate of up to three cables per 24 hours.
To protect the cables, Van Oord’s trencher Dig-It has now been deployed to bury the previously laid cables to the required depth of 1.5 metres below the seabed. The remote-controlled trencher uses the jetting module. By injecting a high water flow, the soil is liquified enabling lowering of the cable.
In the meantime, Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel Aeolus started turbine installation. Each turbine has three 80-metre rotor blades and a rated output of 8.4 MW. Commissioning of the wind farm is expected to take place in the second half of 2019.
As the Balance of Plant contractor for the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm, Van Oord is responsible for the design, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the foundations, inter array cables and offshore substation, and the transport of the wind turbines.
The wind farm, owned by Canada-based independent power producer Northland Power, will supply enough renewable energy to meet the needs of approximately 328,000 households per year.