Composite Monopile Covers
CCM offers the Composite Monopile Cover®; an ingenious and sustainable design, composed with unconventional materials. Because of the circularity of the design, CCM also offers unconventional ways of finance: there are possibility for buying the covers, leasing or buy back arrangements.
The idea behind the different panels is that you can reuse the top panels of the cover for every diameter of offshore monopile which is currently on the market.
Top diameters of monopiles often vary between 6 and 8m. The Composite Monopile Cover is suitable for diameters as from 6m and suitable for future larger monopiles, even beyond 10m. The MP covers can be tailor made by using longer or shorter parts on the slope in order to adjust to the exact diameter of the monopile in a next project. Also the number of hatches can be tailor made for each project. It is just a matter of exchanging panels.
The panels can easily be dismounted and transported by sea container all over the world for a next project. Moreover the panels have a lifetime of 10 years. At the end of their life, they can be ground to granulate and used f.e. as filling material in concrete.
Advantages Composite Monopile Cover
- Cheaper in terms of production costs compared to aluminium or steel monopile covers.
- Translucent material providing day light for offshore workers on the airtight platform.
- Circular, reuse for at least 10 years instead of immediate recycling after a project as currently done with aluminium and steel monopiles covers, costing substantial energy.
- No risk that covers can be blown away and contaminate the sea which can happen with tent covers at high wind speeds.
Technical details of the composite monopile cover
In terms of construction, the composite monopile cover looks a little bit like a birthday cake, with lots of pieces. These pie pieces, the panels, are made of translucent polyester reinforced fibre, providing natural day light on the airtight platform. In this way offshore workers do not need to bring additional heavy-duty batteries for lighting when working inside the monopile. The panels are connected to each other with metal strips and bolted together. Hatches for entering the monopile are also included the cover design.
On the first full scale prototype for Vattenfall – built in 2020 and going into serial production in 2021 – nine strongpoints with a working load limit of 0.5 tonnes are included at the underside of the monopile cover that allow the cable contractor to fixate its cables.
The strongpoints are located 2m from the MP flange and equally distributed across the entire circumference. The strong points can be loaded to a maximum of six adjacent strongpoints with a maximum of 500 kg each. The cover will have three lifting points and the possibility to install a tripod for cable pull in works.
Specifications
| Material | Translucent polyester reinforced fibre |
| Construction | Individual composite panels built together by metal strips |
| Circularity | The panels can be reused for new offshore wind projects |
| Life time | 10 years. After reusing the panels for 10 years they can be grounded to granulate |
| Financial options | Buy, buy-back, leasing |
Conventional Monopile Covers
CCM can offer any shape of construction for monopile covers and in every material required. Next to composite constructions, as specified above, we also offer conventional solutions in materials such as aluminium and combinations with steel. We can also manufacture PVC tents with frames. Based upon our customers wishes, we can design and deliver the ideal configuration of temporary monopile cover for each specific project.
CCM understands the offshore wind business and can support offshore wind farm developers with in-house design, engineering capacity and serial production.