Posted on May 5, 2025
On 29 April 2025, Jan De Nul kicked off the installation campaign of the monopile foundations for RWE’s Thor offshore wind farm. Heavy-lift vessel Les Alizés installed the first of 72 monopiles for Denmark’s largest wind farm to date. When finished, the wind farm will provide enough renewable energy to power more than a million Danish households.
RWE’s Thor wind farm will have a capacity of more than 1 GW, moving significantly closer to Denmark’s goals for the energy transition. More than a million Danish households will receive renewable energy produced in the North Sea. The 72 wind turbines will find their home near the west coast of Jutland, some 22 kilometres offshore.
Günther Fenle, Project Director for Thor at RWE: “Our Thor offshore wind farm – currently under construction – will be Denmark’s largest to date. The successful installation of the first monopile marks a significant milestone, achieved through the collaborative efforts of everyone involved. My thanks go to all colleagues and suppliers for their contribution so far.”
Jan De Nul has a big role to play in the construction of Thor. Besides the monopile foundation and scour protection installation, the company will also install the inter-array cable system and the export cables connecting the offshore and onshore substations.
Philippe Hutse, CEO Offshore Energy at Jan De Nul: “RWE’s Thor offshore wind farm is one of the key projects of 2025 for Jan De Nul. This is yet another big step in building the energy transition, and we execute multiple scopes of work: from installing inter-array and export cables, over scour protection to monopile foundations. For the diverse areas of expertise, we’re deploying several units out of our fleet of vessels.”
This is yet another big step in building the energy transition, and we execute multiple scopes of work: from installing inter-array and export cables, over scour protection to monopile foundations.
Philippe Hutse
CEO Offshore Energy at Jan De Nul
72 monopiles to support the production of over 1 GW renewable energy
The monopile foundations have lengths of up to 100 metres and weigh up to 1,500 tonnes. Les Alizés picks up the foundations at Eemshaven, The Netherlands, before sailing to the installation site off the western coast of Jutland, near Thorsminde. The final monopile installation is planned towards the end of 2025.
Heavy-lift installation with high precision
Les Alizés is equipped with a motion-compensated pile gripper, capable of installing monopile foundations with diameters up to 13 metres. Thanks to its many unique features, high level of redundancy and unmatched capacity in terms of force, speed and accuracy, the pile gripper allows Jan De Nul to conduct the most flexible installation solutions for monopile foundations, in the most challenging conditions.
