Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind, responded: “With Thor we are constructing Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date. Reaching halfway in the safe installation of the monopiles is a great achievement. My thanks go to all colleagues and partners involved for their contribution. Building a project of this size and scale is a great opportunity to demonstrate our expertise in delivering valuable offshore wind farms around the globe.”

The monopiles were shipped from the heavy-lift terminal in Eemshaven, the Netherlands, to the Thor construction site in the Danish North Sea, located approximately 22 km off the west coast of Jutland, and installed by vessel Les Alizés. Five monopiles can be loaded in one shipment. The monopiles are around 100 m in length and weigh up to 1500 t each. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of 1000 small cars.

The secondary steel structures, which include boat landings as well as internal and external platforms for the foundations, are being handled from the Danish Port of Thyborøn, which is the offshore construction base for Thor. The control centre for managing marine logistics and traffic throughout the offshore construction phase is also based in Thyborøn. To protect the monopiles from the harsh conditions at sea until the turbine towers are mounted in 2026, innovative reused hard covers will be installed.

The turbine installation works are scheduled to be carried out from the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, starting in 2026. Thor will be the first offshore wind farm in the world where 36 turbine steel towers are manufactured with a significantly lower carbon footprint than usual. In addition, half of the turbines will be equipped with recyclable rotor blades.

When fully operational in 2027, Thor offshore wind farm will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than 1 million Danish households. The wind farm’s operations and maintenance plan expects to create 50 – 60 local jobs in a new service building at the Port of Thorsminde. Construction of the new RWE service building is already underway and is expected to be finalised by the end of 2025.

Thor offshore wind farm, which will have a capacity of 1080 MW, is a joint project of RWE (51%) and Norges Bank Investment Management (49%). RWE is in charge of the construction and operations throughout the lifecycle of Thor offshore wind farm.

RWE already has 19 offshore wind farms in operation globally, including Rødsand 2, located south of the Danish island of Lolland. In addition to Thor in Denmark, the company is currently building three major offshore wind farms: the Sofia offshore wind farm (1.4 GW) in the UK, the Nordseecluster (1.6 GW, RWE share: 51%) off the German coast, and OranjeWind (795 MW, RWE share: 50%) in the Netherlands.

For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

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Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/wind/17072025/half-of-the-72-monopile-foundations-installed-at-thor-offshore-wind-farm/