Offshore Construction Start

Offshore construction at the Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm effectively commenced with the safe and successful installation of the project’s first full wind turbine foundation on 17 January 2020. This milestone involved the placement of a circa 600‑tonne steel monopile and its bright yellow transition piece 32 km off the Lincolnshire coast, carried out by Seaway7’s heavy-lift installation vessel Seaway Strashnov. Triton Knoll and innogy’s project director, Julian Garnsey, highlighted that a favourable early-year weather window enabled the team to achieve this first installation after years of planning and preparation. This first monopile foundation is the initial element in a major offshore construction campaign that, during 2020, aims to install all 90 bespoke monopile foundations and transition pieces, along with two offshore substation platforms (OSPs) and their foundations, plus more than 600 km of subsea export and array cables. The project’s official updates describe this phase as the start of offshore construction, explicitly noting that offshore works begin with turbine monopile and transition piece installation, supported primarily by Seaway Strashnov and the service operation vessel Esvagt Froude operating out of new Grimsby port facilities. Reaching this milestone transitions Triton Knoll from primarily onshore and fabrication activities into full offshore build-out. It underpins progress toward energising the 857 MW wind farm, jointly owned by innogy, J‑Power and Kansai Electric Power, which is designed to supply the equivalent of over 800,000 UK homes once fully operational.