Following an EU tender, Ørsted has signed strategic volume contracts with Bladt Industries and Steelwind Nordenham who will be supplying monopile foundations for Ørsted’s German offshore wind farms Gode Wind 3 (242 MW) and Borkum Riffgrund 3 (900 MW). 
Photo from Borkum Riffgrund 2 which came into operation in 2018.
The two suppliers will be manufacturing a total of 107 monopile foundations for the German projects, including the foundation for the offshore substation for Gode Wind 3. Steelwind Nordenham will be supplying 66 monopiles, while Bladt Industries will be supplying 41 monopiles. In addition, Ørsted has secured call-off rights with Bladt and Steelwind for further volume for other projects, if needed.
Subject to Ørsted’s final investment decisions, Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 are expected to become fully operational by 2024 and 2025, respectively. Both projects will be powered by Siemens Gamesa’s 11 MW offshore wind turbines.
To carry the increasingly larger offshore wind turbines, monopile foundations have grown significantly in size over the past decade. The monopiles for future offshore wind farms, including Borkum Riffgrund 3 and Gode Wind 3, will be up to 100 meters long, have a diameter of almost 10 meters, and weigh 1,200 tonnes or more.
Richard Hunter, Chief Operating Officer at Ørsted, says: “Our global pipeline of offshore wind projects allows us to sign strategic volume contracts with the supply chain to ensure that key components are available to us when we need them. At the same time, by placing large volume orders, we can give suppliers the visibility they need to invest in their manufacturing facilities and build long-term capacity, which will benefit the whole industry and thereby benefit the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”
Andreas Liessem, Managing Director of Steelwind Nordenham, says: “With our innovative products and services, we make an important contribution to the sustainable production of renewable energy. The cooperation with Ørsted for the construction of Borkum Riffgrund 3 and Gode Wind 3 proves that Steelwind Nordenham has established itself in the market as a reliable manufacturer of high-quality XL monopiles. We are proud to make a significant contribution to the energy transition with our monopiles, which are made of quality steel from our parent company Dillinger.”
Anders Søe-Jensen, CEO of Bladt Industries, says: “We are happy to receive the orders from Ørsted, which allows us to continue our long-standing partnership. We consider it a vote of confidence, and we are pleased to continue our support for the green transition together with one of the world’s leading energy companies. The production will create many new jobs in the Odense area in the years to come, and we expect all positions at our new production facility to be occupied from day one. With this order, we strengthen our position as a leading supplier to the offshore wind market.”
About Ørsted
The Ørsted vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy. Ørsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants, and provides energy products to its customers. Ørsted ranks as the world’s most sustainable energy company in Corporate Knights’ 2021 index of the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world and is recognised on the CDP Climate Change A List as a global leader on climate action. Headquartered in Denmark, Ørsted employs 6,472 people. Ørsted’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen (Orsted). In 2020, the group’s revenue was DKK 52.6 billion (EUR 7.1 billion). Visit orsted.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Steelwind Nordenham GmbH (SWN), a Dillinger Group company, has been manufacturing monopiles and transition pieces in Nordenham since 2014 and now also produces single-piece monopile foundations with unit weights of up to 2,400 tonnes. The single-piece monopile foundation replaces the previous design with a separate monopile and transition piece by integrating certain parts of the transition piece into the monopile. The monopile can then be up to 120 meters long. The steel for the monopiles comes from Dillinger, Europe’s leading heavy-plate manufacturer, located in Saarland. SWN currently employs 275 people. More information can be found at www.steelwind-nordenham.de
Bladt Industries is a leading supplier within offshore wind. Over the last 25 years, Bladt Industries has delivered more than 2,300 foundations for offshore wind turbines, equalling almost one third of all offshore wind turbines in the world. Furthermore, Bladt Industries has delivered a large number of offshore substations for offshore wind farms. Bladt Industries is the foundation for the green energy transition offshore.
