German steel plate-maker Dillinger said Feb. 19 it had supplied 70,000 mt of heavy plate to the Dutch offshore wind farm project Borssele.
Dillinger supplied thermomechanically rolled heavy plate for the monopile foundation structures, with plate thicknesses ranging from 12.7 mm to 88 mm. Some of the slabs reached weights of more than 42 mt, according to Dillinger.
Shell and Eneco said Feb. 18 that the Netherlands’ 732 MW Borssele 3, 4 offshore wind farm was fully operational. The project’s 77 turbines are expected to generate 3 TWh/year and are more than doubling Dutch offshore wind capacity. The Netherlands targets some 11 GW installed offshore capacity by 2030.
The German plate market has been struggling with low demand from the oil & gas sector due to investment backlog, exacerbated by the pandemic with wind energy getting increasingly more importance as part of the energy transition.
In November, the CEO of Dillinger’s parent company Stah Holding Saar, Karl-Ulrich Köhler, said the company wanted to further strengthen its portfolio in the automotive business, offshore wind and rail sectors.
— Laura Varriale
