EQUIPMENT
Many wind farms are built in the sea. The electricity flows to the coast through cables that lie on the seabed. These cables must be installed, buried and protected in a safe manner. Not only in the deep seabed, but also in tidal areas and on land itself - right under your sandcastle. But how do you bury a cable up to 8 metres under the beach?
The tools to bury cables in these shallow areas were inadequate until Jan De Nul changed that.
The Sunfish was born as an intertidal ploughing vehicle and successfully used to link a windfarm to land in the United Kingdom. The tool was later equipped with a chaincutter to bury an export cable in Belgium. The Sunfish is currently fully customised to lower an export cable in The Netherlands by means of the waterjetting technology.
Those kind of tools are a pleasure to build: ingenious gadgets and enormous dimensions. Yet the ground pressure of the machine is no higher than that of a human being. An aspect you have to watch out for when building machines that are used in nature-sensitive areas.
What’s the pressure?
Want to see the Sunfish at work?
Luchterduinen export cable
Noordwijk aan zee
On the beach of Noordwijk, our Sunfish will assist in installing an export cable to the Luchterduinen offshore wind farm. The export cable has a diameter of 208 mm and a total length of 23 km, which the Sunfish will lower in the first shallowest kilometer.
Discover our offshore cable works
EQUIPMENT
Discover our offshore cable works
Many wind farms are built in the sea. The electricity flows to the coast through cables that lie on the seabed. These cables must be installed, buried and protected in a safe manner. Not only in the deep seabed, but also in tidal areas and on land itself - right under your sandcastle. But how do you bury a cable up to 8 metres under the beach?
The tools to bury cables in these shallow areas were inadequate until Jan De Nul changed that.
What’s the pressure?
Luchterduinen export cable
The Sunfish was born as an intertidal ploughing vehicle and successfully used to link a windfarm to land in the United Kingdom. The tool was later equipped with a chaincutter to bury an export cable in Belgium. The Sunfish is currently fully customised to lower an export cable in The Netherlands by means of the waterjetting technology.
Those kind of tools are a pleasure to build: ingenious gadgets and enormous dimensions. Yet the ground pressure of the machine is no higher than that of a human being. An aspect you have to watch out for when building machines that are used in nature-sensitive areas.
Want to see the Sunfish at work?
Noordwijk aan zee
On the beach of Noordwijk, our Sunfish will assist in installing an export cable to the Luchterduinen offshore wind farm. The export cable has a diameter of 208 mm and a total length of 23 km, which the Sunfish will lower in the first shallowest kilometer.