The first eight foundations for the Nordeseecluster, a 1.6GW offshore wind project being built in the German North Sea, have arrived and been offloaded in the Dutch base port Eemshaven.
The foundations are around 85 meters long on average and weigh approximately 1,500 tonnes each, the equivalent to the weight of around 800 cars.
Built by RWE, the offshore wind project will consist of Nordseecluster A with 660MW, with commissioning expected in 2027, and Nordseecluster B with additional 900MW to follow in 2029.
A total of 45 of monopile foundations will pass through the Buss Terminal in Eemshaven in 2025 - 44 of them are to carry the wind turbines, and one will support the transformer substation.
The large-scale foundations were manufactured and delivered by Dajin Heavy Industry.
Beginning in summer 2025, the foundations will be shipped from the base port in Eemshaven out to the construction site at sea, which is located around 50 kilometers north of the island of Juist.
The 44 wind turbines for Nordseecluster A will be erected in 2026 and fully connected to the grid at the start of 2027, while Nordseecluster B will contribute additional 60 wind turbines.
Vestas will supply its V236-15.0 MW offshore wind turbines for the project.
“With the delivery and safe unloading of the first foundations by Dajin, we have passed an important milestone on the way to building our Nordseecluster. With an overall capacity of around 1.6 gigawatts, it is the largest wind project currently being built off the German coast.
“We need an enormous amount of storage space and an excellent port infrastructure for the construction process – both of which are available at the Buss Terminal Eemshaven. We are currently creating synergies by also handling the foundations for our Danish offshore wind farm Thor at this port and will use it as the base for our Dutch OranjeWind project as well,” said Thomas Michel, COO RWE Offshore Wind.
Once fully operational, the Nordseecluster will generate enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of around 1.6 million households.
