Wind Energy – France
Large Diameter Drilling (LDD), a specialist marine drilling and grouting contractor has signed a contract to deliver grouting services for DEME Offshore’s installation of foundations at the Saint-Nazaire wind farm off the coast of the Guérande Peninsula, France.
As known it will be the world’s first wind farm to use drilled XL-monopile foundations and it will consist of 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW wind turbines.
LDD will provide skilled personnel and services for grouting the drilled monopiles in position and the transition pieces to monopile connections using equipment from its Core Grouting branded service.
The scope involves grouting monopiles into drilled rock sockets using a high-strength grout followed by grouting the transition pieces to the monopiles using an ultra-high-strength grout.
To support these operations, LDD has developed bespoke grout mixing and pumping equipment to deliver mixed grout to the drilled rock sockets at a rate of 100 m3/h.