Navantia-Seanergies y Windar Renovables se adjudican el primer contrato de monopiles XXL para su nueva fábrica de Fene (2)
The global execution period is 10 months, generating 280,000 hours of work, an average of 150 direct jobs per month
Ocean Winds, a Spanish company dedicated to offshore wind energy created by EDP Renewables (EDPR) and ENGIE, has awarded the alliance formed by Navantia Seanergies and Windar Renovables an order for 14 monopiles for its Moray West offshore wind farm, in Scottish waters ( United Kingdom). This contract will be the first order executed in the new XXL monopile factory that both companies are building in the Fene shipyard (A Coruña), with an investment of 36 million euros.
The material collection process will begin this July and the start of production work in the new factory in December. The global execution period is 10 months, generating 280,000 hours of work, an average of 150 direct jobs per month.
The monopiles are destined for the Moray West project, which will have a generation capacity of 882 MW through 60 turbines of 14.7 MW. This park is being developed by Ocean Winds in the western area of the Moray Firth offshore wind farm, some 22km off the coast of Caithness, Scotland.
The monopiles will have an approximate length of 90 meters, a maximum diameter of 10 meters and a minimum of 8 and a maximum weight of 2,000 tons. This type of XXL piles, the product with the highest market share among fixed foundations, is new for Navantia-Windar. In this way, with this contract, this business alliance enters a market segment in which it aspires to play a relevant role, although Windar Renovables already stands out as a manufacturer of transition parts for this type of monopile.
“This first contract for XXL monopiles is a success due to the diversification in our catalog of offshore wind power products. We are committed to a long-term product in the coming years and to developing the local industrial fabric in the Ría de Ferrol, capitalizing on the enormous expected demand for offshore wind power products, which will multiply by three in just five years”, declared the president of Navantia, Ricardo Dominguez.
The executive president of Windar Renovables, Orlando Alonso, congratulated himself on the good progress of the alliance between the company he leads and Navantia Seenergies, which has become "a leading player in the ecological transition and the development of renewables". He also stated that ”innovation and the ability to adapt to customer needs, which are at the core of our union, have been decisive in awarding us this project. It is the first step of what will undoubtedly be a long journey, as well as a demonstration of the wisdom of having undertaken the investment in Fene that allows us to operate in this segment”.
Ocean Winds was created in 2019 as a company owned 50% by EDPR and the French multinational ENGIE, and is currently one of the most important offshore wind developers in the international arena. It has 1.5 GW in operation in Europe, and 9.7 GW under development in the UK, France, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, the US and South Korea.
Last June, Ocean Winds confirmed a capacity reservation agreement with Navantia to build two jacket-type foundations in Puerto Real (Cádiz) for the substations of two offshore wind farms in France: “îles d'Yeu et Noirmoutier” and “ Dieppe Le Tréport”, in which it will be Navantia Seenergies' first project in the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) modality, with which it will be responsible for the design and turnkey manufacturing of the structures.
Navantia has already worked in the past on the construction of 20 jackets for Moray East (a project also managed by Ocean Winds, among other partners), which was also carried out at the Puerto Real shipyard, and the alliance of Navantia and Windar Renovables also worked with EDPR for its first semi-submersible floating wind project (Windfloat Atlantic in 2018-2019).