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Ruukki to Provide Structures to Aker Verdal for North Sea Wind Farm
Jul. 6, 2010 Aker Verdal AS, Norway, has contracted Ruukki to deliver steel structures for the Nordsee Ost wind farm project to be built offshore from Germany in the North Sea.
This project marks Ruukki’s first delivery of steel structures for the jacket foundations of offshore wind turbines. Ruukki will supply 240 individual structures — massive 12-meter welded structures that will be used to fasten the wind turbine towers to their jacket foundations, anchoring the towers and joining the structures together.
Ruukki will begin manufacture of the steel structures for the North Sea wind turbines at its plant in Kalajoki, Finland in the fourth quarter of this year. Deliveries will last for about a year, with the project expected to employ about one hundred people at the Kalajoki plant.
"We have long worked together with Ruukki in the offshore industry," said a spokesperson from Aker Verdal about the cooperation with Ruukki. “Ruukki's ability to provide total delivery ranging from raw material to ready components enables more efficient project supply chain management.
RWE Innogy's Nordsee Ost wind farm will cover an area of around 36 square km off the German coast about 35 km to the northeast of Helgoland, at a sea depth in the range of 22 to 25 meters. The completed wind farm, which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2013, will produce approximately 1.1 terawatt-hours of power per year, equivalent to the supply of more than 310,000 households.
"The wind power industry is one of our strategic focus areas," said Tommi Matomäki, President, Ruukki Engineering. “Steel structures for offshore wind turbines broaden our range of solutions for the wind power industry and strengthen our position as an expert in the offshore industry.”
Rautaruukki supplies wide selection of metal-based components, services, systems and integrated systems to the construction and engineering industries. With operations in 27 countries, Rautaruukki employs around 11,500 people and reported net sales of approximately EUR 2.0 billion in 2009. The Corporation uses the marketing name Ruukki.