Ruukki supplies steel structures for Aker Verdal wind farm project

Finnish specialist in metal products, systems and services, Ruukki has agreed with the Norwegian company Aker Verdal AS on the delivery of steel structures for the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm project to be built off the German North Sea coast.

Steel structure deliveries for offshore wind farm foundations broadens Ruukki's solutions for the wind power industry. Offshore wind turbine towers are anchored to the sea bed by huge piles and massive 12-metre 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, which anchor the towers and join the structures together.

Manufacture of the steel structures will begin in Ruukki's plant in Kalajoki, Finland in the last quarter of this year. Deliveries will continue for a period of a year, and the project will employ approximately one hundred people at the company's Kalajoki plant.

RWE Innogy's 36 square-kilometre Nordsee Ost wind farm will be built off the German coast, about 35 kilometres to the northeast of Helgoland Islands. The sea depth in the wind farm area is 22-25 metres. The wind farm will be commissioned in 2013. Once completed, the wind farm will produce approximately 1.1 terawatt-hours of power per year, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of more than 310 000 households.

www.ruukki.com