The actual erection of the turbines takes place in March through September 2002 but the initial construction preparations in the North Sea are already ongoing. An 82 m-high barge crane drives the foundation piles for the platform that Eltra is currently establishing for the farm in the area. A total of 19 piles are to be driven into the seabed to a depth of 35 meters. The driving of the piles with a diameter of 2.6 m is scheduled for the September through mid October 2001. The installation of the platform itself takes place in March and April 2002.

Model of the transformer substation platform 

On August 15, 2001 the largest Danish test turbine so far - the Tjæreborg Turbine - was demolished after a fire had destroyed the turbine's generator. This has given Elsam the opportunity to erect and test a turbine similar to the one ordered for the Horns Rev offshore farm on the empty site.

The turbine, to be erected on October 2001, represents the latest wind power technology. New technical aspects of this turbine will be tested and technicians as well as service staff will have the opportunity to practice service, maintenance and operating routines of an offshore turbine before establishing the World's largest offshore farm so far on Horns Rev in 2002. The technical equipment includes increased load control system and a heli-platform for hoisting service staff.

Foundation for the new offshore wind turbine  

Thorough environmental studies have been initiated and during the summer of 2001 several bird counts have been completed as well as studies of the seabed fauna and of the porpoises in the area.

Seabed fauna

On June 6, 2001 studies were made at six turbine positions. Along the study areas a total of 36 samples were taken for the analysis of the nature and the composition of the species and individuals of the seabed fauna. Another 18 samples were taken for the analysis of the sedimentation characteristics.

Bird counts
On August 22, 2001 the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark, Department of Coastal Zone Ecology, carried out bird counts at Horns Rev. The bird counts were carried out from a Partenavia P68 Observer, a twin-engine aeroplane specially equipped for these studies.

Counts were made in all 26 scheduled transects, including those transects which are in restricted military areas.

Porpoises
A few trips have been made to the Horns Rev during which sea mammals have been spotted, especially porpoises. The trips were made with few days' interval in the periods August 15-18 and August 21-22, 2001 and during these trips, quite a large number porpoises was spotted giving us sufficient data for documenting the presence of porpoises prior to the construction of the farm. The data also made us able to describe the short-term variations in the distribution of the mammals better than earlier.

The results of the PODs (equipment for recording the number of porpoises) are of varying qualities. The use of PODs during the trips (for testing the visual observations of porpoises) gave negative results. It was not possible to drag the equipment at a speed of 8 knots due to the strong currents. We hope to improve the techniques so that we can test the survey results acoustically in the future. The stationary PODs on the Horns Rev seem to work perfectly though.

Seals
The seal study programme has not been initiated yet but in the very near future five seals will be tagged with transmitters so that we may follow them in the North Sea and in the Horns Rev area.

The lines are the transects covered by Partenavia P68 Observer.

It is crucial for the planning of the work in the North Sea to be able to forecast the weather conditions, for instance in connection with the erection and implementation of maintenance tasks of the turbines. Elsam and the Danish Meteorological Institute co-operate to make a model for the weather forecast for the Horns Rev area, which enables us make precise predictions of the weather conditions.