Original title: Sunk into the Danish North Sea in just 5 months, 72 steel towers each weighing up to 1,500 tons are waiting for the turbines that carry the offshore wind industry's most ambitious recycling bet yet
Between April and September 2025, Jan De Nul's heavy-lift vessel Les Alizés installed all 72 monopile foundations — each around 100 meters long and weighing up to 1,500 tons — at RWE's 1,080 MW Thor offshore wind farm, roughly 20 km off Denmark's Jutland coast, finishing ahead of schedule. The project will use 36 lower-carbon steel turbine towers and will be the largest deployment yet of recyclable rotor blades, with half of its Siemens Gamesa turbines so equipped. Turbine installation is set to begin from Esbjerg in spring 2026, with full operation expected in 2027. Reusable hard covers are protecting the monopiles in the interim. Operations and maintenance will be based from a new service building at the Port of Thorsminde, creating 50–60 local jobs.