Making the Arkona offshore wind farm safe for marine life
11 August 2022
Challenge
Wind farm construction in Baltic Sea
The 385-megawatt offshore wind farm Arkona is located more than 35 kilometres north of Rügen Island, Germany and supplies sustainable energy to 400,000 households. Van Oord was responsible for the transport and installation of the 60 monopiles and transition pieces. Heavy lift installation vessel Svanen was deployed to install heavy monopiles in the Baltic seabed while limiting the impact on the surrounding area.
Noise mitigation requirements
The noise that goes along with pile-driving can negatively impact marine mammals. Avoiding disruption to marine life was a crucial factor in the tender award and execution of the project. Several noise dampening techniques – such as a Hydro Sound Damper (HSD) and bubble curtains – were used to minimise the sound produced during pile-driving but the project also needed a way to safely clear marine mammals to a distance where there would be no risk of hearing damage.
Solution
FaunaGuard porpoise module
To keep porpoises outside the piling zone, Van Oord deployed our innovative FaunaGuard system. This acoustic device safely and temporarily deters various marine fauna species and uses special underwater acoustics to prevent potential harm to porpoises. FaunaGuard has proven itself during use on several other offshore wind projects, like Gemini and Luchterduinen. Thanks to combining various sound-damping systems and the FaunaGuard acoustic device the impact on porpoises in the vicinity of the project site was minimised.
Positive customer feedback
Moritz Horn, Managing Director of Van Oord Offshore Wind Germany described the project as “a reference landmark in noise mitigation: a real achievement by the Van Oord team”.
