Framo Technology Successfully Install Wind Turbine Foundations
Wednesday 8 August 2018
Framo’s pump technology has been used to successfully anchor 20 wind turbines at the wind farm Burkum Riffgrund 2.
A total of 60 suction buckets have been pumped in place as foundation for the 20 wind turbines in Ørsted's new wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 2.
In June 2018, a team of specialists from Framo, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) and GeoSea installed the first of the 20 suction bucket jackets at the offshore wind farm. After periods of storm and high waves, the foundations of all 20 wind turbines were safely pumped into the seabed with the final jacket foundation installed on Monday, 30 July. The full commissioning of the wind farm is planned for early 2019.
Framo is a sub-contractor to NGI in the installation of the 20 offshore wind turbines. NGI and Framo have collaborated on the installation of offshore anchoring and foundation elements using suction/vacuum since the 1990s.The technology of suction and bucket foundation has been used to secure and safely anchor platforms and offshore installations around the world. Now larger wind farms are being built with this technology. The foundation is installed by pumping water out of the buckets. This creates a suction/vacuum, which press the buckets into the seabed.
The windfarm Borkum Riffgrund 2 is located 54 kilometers off the coast of Lower Saxony, in the German North Sea. In the installation of the 56 wind turbines, 20 will use the suction bucket technology as foundation and 36 will be supported using monopiles.
The three-legged foundations measure more than 50 meters in height and weighing 950 tons each.
When the 8,5 megawatt giant turimages, are in place, they rise 109 meters above sea level and have a wing span of 164 meters.