Under the contract, OSB will manufacture 40 transition pieces for the Walney Extension at its facility in Teesside, northeast England. An official opening ceremony for the facility is taking place today (14 September).
Dong Energy’s Walney Extension is located in the Irish Sea.
OSB is based at the site of the TAG Energy Solutions foundations manufacturing facility, which closed in October 2014.
EEW will manufacture the 87 monopile foundations at its factory in Rostock, Germany. Bladt will be responsible for the remaining 47 transition pieces from its site in Aalborg, Denmark.
Karl Klos-Hein, CEO EEW said it made sense to set up a facility in the UK. “The UK is a big market in the offshore wind sector, we have served a lot of projects already including London Array and Gwynt y Mor.
“We expect the market to grow even more and we feel there is a benefit to being local to simplify the logistics,” he added.
Jan Kjaersgaard, Bladt CEO, said the companies wished to maintain their status in the market. “We see the UK as the biggest market globally, since we are the market leaders we wanted to support our market leadership. We want to protect that position and remain strong players in the UK”.
Bladt and EEW are also contracted to supply foundations to Dong’s 256MW Burbo Bank Extension. The OSB facility produced the first transition pieces at its facility in August.