On July 2, Finnish steelmaker Ruukki announced that it has agreed with the Norwegian company Aker Verdal AS on the delivery of steel structures for the Nordsee Ost wind farm project to be built offshore from Germany in the North Sea. Steel structure deliveries for the jacket foundations of offshore wind turbines are a new entry for Ruukki.
Offshore wind turbine towers are anchored to the sea bed by huge piles and massive 12-meter welded structures are used to fasten the wind turbine towers to their jacket foundations. Ruukki's delivery includes a total of 240 of these individual structures to anchor the towers and join the structures together.
Manufacture of the steel structures for offshore wind turbines in the North Sea will begin in Ruukki's plant in Kalajoki, Finland in the fourth quarter of this year. Deliveries will last for about a year, and the project will employ about one hundred people at the Kalajoki plant.
The wind farm will be commissioned in 2013. When completed, the wind farm will produce approximately 1.1 terawatt-hours of power per year, equivalent to the supply of more than 310,000 households.