Navantia Seanergies and Windar Renovables have completed the first monopile for ScottishPower Renewable’s up-to-1.4GW East Anglia Three offshore windfarm.
The project will use a total of 45 monopiles, which are expected to take a total of 15 months to complete, or approximately 900,000 hours.
The first monopile measures 84 metres in length, 10.5 metres in diameter and weighs 1,800 tonnes.
The foundation was produced at Navantia’s shipyard in Fene, Spain, where it is now being kept in storage.
The partners signed the deal to produce the monopiles in April 2023.
The 2.9GW East Anglia Three complex is one of three schemes in the East Anglia Hub, which has an estimated worth of £6.5 billion.
The scheme itself is expected to power approximately 1.3 million homes, making a significant contribution to the 50GW by 2030 efforts.
This will involve 95 offshore turbines, and an estimated creation of 2,300 jobs during the construction period. Onshore construction began in 2022, with offshore work expected to begin this year ahead of commissioning in 2026.
Hughes Subsea recently won a contract to undertake unexploded ordnance (UXO) identification and clearance for East Anglia Three, covering an area of around 305 km2 across the project’s site in the Southern North Sea.
UAE-based group Masdar farmed into the project as part of a €15bn investment in offshore wind and green hydrogen projects.