Sif Produces First Empire Wind 1 Monopile in Netherlands

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 30,The first of 54 monopiles for Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm in the US has been manufactured at Sif’s Maasvlakte 2 site in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

On 28 November, the first monopile for Empire Wind was completed on the new production line of the expanded production facilities at Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam.

In February 2023, Sif took the final investment decision (FID) to invest EUR 328 million in the expansion of its production facilities at Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam.

Empire Offshore Wind committed EUR 50 million in advanced factory payments to finance the project and became a launching client for the investment programme.

In August 2024, the Dutch company announced that the first of three production lines of the expanded facilities was in operation.

“We will now focus on getting the facilities up-to-speed to manufacture approximately 200 monopiles per year. It makes me proud to see that the quality of the first product is very good and that measurement is widely within tolerances,” said Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding.

The monopiles and transition pieces for the 810 MW Empire Wind 1 will be manufactured in the first quarter of 2025 and shipped to the US for installation offshore New York.

Transition pieces (TPs) for the project are being produced in Sif’s Roermond facilities.

A couple of months ago, Vestas received an order for 54 of its 15 MW turbines from Equinor for the Empire Wind 1 wind farm. Turbine delivery is expected to begin in 2026 with completion scheduled for 2027.

The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) in Sunset Park, which is being transformed into a dedicated port facility for offshore wind, will provide the infrastructure to deploy the V236-15.0 MW offshore wind turbines, including the staging and pre-assembly activities such as load-in, load-out, and transportation of wind turbine components, tools, and containers before progressing towards offshore wind turbine installation and commissioning.