Essen, 22 October 2024

RWE has taken an important step in the construction of its offshore wind project Thor in the Danish North Sea: the first batch of eight monopile foundations for the wind turbines were offloaded and stored at the base port of Eemshaven in the Netherlands. The monopiles are up to 100 meters in length and weigh up to 1,500 tonnes each. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of 1,000 small cars. A total of 72 of these foundations will be handled in Eemshaven.

Thomas Michel, COO RWE Offshore Wind: “The arrival of the first batch of monopiles at the port marks an important milestone in the delivery of our Thor project – Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date. The construction of offshore wind farms requires large port capacity and special port infrastructure to handle the heavy components. Such capacities are becoming increasingly difficult to find. We are delighted to have secured the Buss Terminal once again. The facilities at Eemshaven port are ideal. We recently used the port to support the construction of our Kaskasi wind farm.”

Buss Terminal Eemshaven, part of the Hamburg-based Terminal operator Buss Ports, provides storage space, heavy unloading equipment and operators at the port, whilst also managing the port logistics. In spring 2025, foundations will be shipped from the Dutch heavy-lift terminal in Eemshaven to the Thor construction site in the Danish North Sea, located approximately 22 kilometers off the west coast of Jutland.

Marc Wegman, Managing Director Buss Terminal Eemshaven: “We are proud to partner with RWE for another large-scale offshore wind project. Our skilled staff will ensure a smooth and safe handling process at our Eemshaven state-of-the-art terminal, where safety is our top priority.”

Danish ports selected for turbine installation and subsequent operation

The turbine installation works are scheduled to be carried out from the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, starting in 2026. The Port of Thorsminde will serve as an operation and maintenance base, creating 50 - 60 local jobs. Construction of the new service building of RWE is expected to start later this year.

With more than one gigawatt of capacity, Thor offshore wind farm will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than one million Danish households. The wind farm is expected to be fully operational no later than end of 2027.

Global leading player in offshore wind

RWE already operates 19 offshore wind farms, including Rødsand 2 off the Danish coast. Beside Thor in Denmark the company is currently building three large-scale offshore wind farms: the Sofia offshore wind farm (1.4 GW) in the UK, the Nordseecluster (1.6 GW) off the German coast and the OranjeWind offshore wind farm (795 MW) in the Netherlands together with TotalEnergies. RWE aims to triple its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3 GW today to 10 GW by 2030.

Image material for media use is available at the RWE Media Centre.

You can download the press release here.