Offshore Windfarm, Greater Gabbard, Detailed Foundation Design

The Greater Gabbard Offshore wind farm will be located 25 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk, UK, and installed at water depths of between 24 and 34 metres. On completion, the wind farm willhave a total capacity of around 500MW making it the largest offshore wind farm under construction in 2009.

140 individual foundation designs
The wind farm will comprise 140 Siemens 3.6 MW turbines mounted on steel monopiles and transition pieces.
 

Construction work for Greater Gabbard
The wind farm will be commissioned in two phases, with the construction work scheduled to be totally completed in 2011, and export of electricity from the first phase is expected in 2010. The foundation structures are monopiles with a grouted connection to the transition pieces, which are ready for mounting of the wind turbine tower structures once installed. The design was carried out as 140 individual foundation designs based on the actual site conditions at the individual positions, i.e. the actual soil profile and water depth at each location.
Ramboll has been thrilled to participate in the challenge of designing the foundations for such a large and complex project, which has given us the possibility to prove the effectiveness of our design technology and to utilize the experience of our team.

The services rendered by Ramboll

• Project manager for the detailed design of offshore wind turbine foundations.
• Design briefs for certification and certification of the design.
• Detailed design of secondary steel for foundations such as boat landing, external and internal platforms, J-tubes and anodes (DDPS) and a blast-proof room within the transition piece to accommodate the gas-insulated transformer here.
• FEM analysis

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