Seabed preparation work has begun at Veja Mate, a 402 MW offshore wind project located about 60 miles northwest of the island of Borkum in the German North Sea.

A two-layered scour protection system, designed to avoid natural scour erosion, using stones of select size and thickness, will allow for the post installation of the monopoles for the wind turbines, according to the project sponsors, which are Highland Group, Siemens Financial Services and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

The Veja Mate wind farm will consist of 67 Siemens 6 MW turbines using the world’s largest monopiles.

“A lot of hard work, from both our contractors, and our Veja Mate project team has been done to get ready for the seabed preparation,” Rasmus Miller, Veja Mate’s foundation package manager, said in a Feb. 3 statement. “Beginning pre-construction work just six months after funding is an extremely short time schedule; I am happy that the foundation package has got off to a good start.”

The 1.9 billion euro ($212 billion) Veja Mate project is one of nine German offshore projects that received funding in mid-2015. When fully operational in 2018, it will produce over 1.6 TWh of electricity annually for 400,000 German households.

Actual foundation installation is scheduled for April 2016, marking the start of construction for the project, the sponsors said.

Lead image credit: Veja Mate.

