en.Wedoany.com Reported - Mammoet, using its new MTC 1600 crane, assisted Van Oord in the lifting and marshalling of 78 monopiles for the Baltic Power offshore wind farm project. These monopiles weigh up to 1,680 tons, with a maximum length of 86.3 meters and a diameter of 9.1 meters.
As offshore wind farms expand into deeper and more distant waters, the size and weight of wind turbine foundations (monopiles) continue to increase, placing higher demands on the capabilities of lifting, transport, and installation equipment. Mammoet's innovation team developed the XXL Monopile Transport System, first deployed in 2024, which can safely marshal, store, and transport the world's largest and heaviest monopiles.
For the Baltic Power project, Mammoet assisted in transporting 78 monopiles from the factory to the foundation installation site. The monopiles were shipped in three batches via barge to the Port of Ronne in Denmark and unloaded using a 78-axle SPMT equipped with Mammoet's XXL Monopile Transport System. During unloading, the system's saddle hydraulically expanded to cradle the monopile. Using the combined travel of the SPMT and the system's lifting pads, the monopile was lifted from the transport grillage and then transported to a temporary storage location, where it was placed on a gravel berm. The lifting pads fully extended, raising the monopile an additional 0.6 meters, enabling the operation of placing the monopile into and removing it from the berm recess.
The system's collapsible saddle design allows for lower and shorter berms, reducing the required gravel volume and on-site civil preparation work. Before loading onto the vessel, the monopiles were lifted and transported to a sealing station for airtightness testing. Subsequently, they were lifted into the water by two MTC 1600 cranes, towed by tugboats to Van Oord's heavy-lift installation vessel "Svanen," and finally installed 23 kilometers offshore from the settlements of Choczewo and Łeba in Poland.
In addition to the monopiles, Mammoet completed the marshalling of transition pieces for the project at the same port, using a similar process. However, the transition pieces were lifted onto the SPMT using an LR1800 crawler crane. The MTC 1600 crane can transform any quayside into an efficient heavy-lift dock for loading and unloading monopiles from vessels. Load testing for the project was conducted at less busy locations on site to avoid disruptions. To streamline the process, the roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) method was changed midway through the project, with the MTC 1600 used to unload monopiles directly from barges, reducing the time required for fully ballasting each barge.
This marshalling work followed Mammoet's support of Van Oord's upgrade of the "Svanen" vessel in 2024. Mammoet Commercial Manager Jaap van der Riet stated that the company assisted in developing matching cranes and systems to meet Van Oord's requirement to increase the "Svanen's" lifting capacity to 3,000 tons. The Baltic Power project, developed by ORLEN and Northland Power, is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2026, when it will provide 4 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually, meeting 3% of Poland's national electricity demand.
This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com
