Ramboll has designed more offshore wind turbine foundations than any other company in the world due to our 30 years' experience with anchoring oil and gas rigs at sea. We have also been involved in the Burbo Bank wind farm project offshore the UK.
Our ability to deal with the challenges of the sea environment in this connection has successfully been adapted to wind farms. Offshore wind farms are more difficult to design, construct and maintain compared to those on land. For this reason they are more expensive but at the same time wind speeds across the open water are generally higher and more reliable - and offshore turbines are also less obtrusive.
Burbo Offshore Wind Farm consists of 25 Siemens 3.6 MW wind turbines connected to shore by three buried submarine cables. The wind farm is constructed at a water depth of 3.5-7.5 metres on Burbo Flats in Liverpool Bay, 4 miles from the Sefton coast line.
The advantage of 3D design
For this project 3D modelling was used to design the foundations of the wind turbines. The use of 3D enables our engineers to prepare detailed models of the foundations, so that we are able to provide precise work drawings as well as an estimation of the amount of materials necessary to our customers.