Half of the monopile foundations installed at Thor offshore wind farm off the Danish coast

• 36 of 72 monopiles installed at the 1.1-gigawatt Thor offshore wind farm
• Monopiles shipped from Eemshaven, the Netherlands, to the offshore construction site; secondary steel structures handled from the Danish Port of Thyborøn
• Sustainable features: reused monopile hard covers, CO2-reduced steel towers and recyclable blades
•  When completed in 2027, Thor will be able to power the equivalent of more than one million Danish homes

RWE has taken an important step in the construction of the 1.1-gigawatt (GW) Thor offshore wind farm in the Danish North Sea: as of yesterday, half of 72 monopile foundations for the wind turbines have been successfully installed.

Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind: “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 kilometres off the west coast of Jutland, and installed by the vessel “Les Alizés”. Five monopiles can be loaded in one shipment. The monopiles are around 100 metres in length and weigh up to 1,500 metric tonnes each. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of 1,000 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 next year, innovative reused hard covers will be installed.

Delivery of Thor offshore wind farm well underway

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 one million Danish households. The wind farm’s operations and maintenance plan expects to create 50 to 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 1,080 megawatts, 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.

Leading global player in offshore wind

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.

Source: RWE