Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Wind farm foundations complete: special ship passes baptism of fire

In May 2020, a serious accident occurred in Rostock on the special ship "Orion".

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Wind farm foundations complete: special ship passes baptism of fire

In May 2020, a serious accident occurred in Rostock on the special ship "Orion". Now the ship has completed its first project.

Sassnitz (dpa/mv) - The special ship "Orion", which was repaired after an accident in Rostock, has completed its first project off Rügen. Parkwind and DEME Offshore announced on Wednesday that they installed the last of 28 giant pile foundations for the Arcadis Ost 1 wind farm last weekend. Each individual pile weighs more than 2,000 tons and is up to 110 meters long. These are the largest such foundations installed in Europe.

According to the information, the wind farm north-east of Cape Arkona should go into operation before the end of this year and produce electricity for up to 290,000 households. According to the company, the use of the "Orion" is particularly important for the installation of the foundations, because it is automatically positioned by means of computer control. This enables faster construction than with ships that connect to the seabed with legs.

There was an accident in May 2020 during load tests of the heavy-duty crane on the "Orion" in the port of Rostock. A hook broke under heavy load. The crane buckled due to the violent jolt. Twelve people were injured. The crane was later rebuilt. It has a maximum lifting capacity of 5000 tons.