One of the largest in the world!

With the offshore windpark “Gemini”, which went into operation in 2017, one of the largest offshore windparks in the world has its foundations on steel from Dillinger. Gemini (twins) stands for two sea areas in which the windpark was erected in depths of water of up to 36 metres. With its site around 85 kilometers north of the coast of the province of Groningen, it is located in one of the windiest areas off the Dutch coast.

The Gemini windpark stretches over 68 km² and comprises a total of 150 wind turbines with an overall output of 600 MW. It is therefore currently among the most powerful windparks in the world and can supply over 400,000 households in the Netherlands with electricity. The turbines are based on “monopiles” – foundations anchored in the sea, consisting of large, thick-walled construction tubes – that are up to 73 metres in length and up to 7 metres in diameter.

Dillinger supplied around 94,500 tonnes of thermomechanically rolled (TM) plates with plate thicknesses of up to 95 mm for these steel foundations. With individual plate weights of up to 32 tonnes, this gigantic project made full use of the huge production possibilities for TM plates, going to the limits of what was feasible at that time. Meanwhile, Dillinger can even supply these steels with individual plate weights of 35 tonnes and is thus at the leading edge of this technology worldwide.

A glance at the largest windparks shows that steel from the Saarland plays a major role here: for instance, Dillinger was a supplier for the largest offshore windpark of its time “Hornsrev”, which was superseded by the most powerful windparks, respectively, “Thanet”, “Walney”,“London Array” or “Dan Tysk” for which Dillinger also supplied heavy plates for the foundations.