Foundation Installation Start

Foundation installation at Borssele Wind Farm Site V began in late April 2020 when Van Oord's offshore installation vessel Aeolus installed the world's first submerged Slip Joint connection on a full-sized offshore wind turbine foundation. The Slip Joint, a Van Oord in-house innovation certified by DNVGL in autumn 2019, connects monopile to transition piece via two conical sections placed on top of each other and friction — eliminating the conventional grouted or bolted connection. The same April 2020 campaign installed the second monopile foundation, which carried an alternative innovation (Thermally Sprayed Aluminium anti-corrosion coating). Both Sif-manufactured monopiles were equipped with eco-friendly scour protection, demonstrating multiple Borssele V innovation themes in a single offshore campaign. The first Slip Joint installation specifically is cited elsewhere as 25 April 2020, recorded under offshore_construction_start as the project's offshore-works milestone; this event captures the same campaign as the foundation-component milestone the audit health check expects.