Drilling through the dunes on Norderney for offshore wind energy

In the summer of 2022, Brownline surveyed four parallel drillings on the German island of Norderney. In order to complete connections for offshore wind energy facilities, the dunes on the East Frisian island were crossed using Drillguide GST and GPS track.

Wind turbines in the North Sea are an important source of electricity to meet the growing European demand for green energy. That is why new offshore wind farms continue to be constructed in the North Sea. The existing corridor through Norderney was used to bring the generated electricity from wind farms “DolWin delta” and “BorWin delta” to the German mainland. Installing these DolWin4 and BorWin4 connections required directional drillings on the island, carried out by LMR Drilling.

These drillings were more than 1,000 m / 3,500 ft long, crossed the dunes on the northern coast, and punched out on the beach. Our Drillguide Gyro Steering Tool was used to guarantee the accuracy of the pilot hole in this sensitive and protected dune area. The GST is the ideal tool for this job, because there is no need to enter the protected environment with tools to read out a downhole sonde. The drilling can be monitored from the entry point.

An extra verification came from using the GPS track add-on. This unit is placed near the planned exit point. This additional check guaranteed a perfectly accurate punch-out.

Protected area

This crossing also utilized Brownline’s PWD-service: Pressure While Drilling. Using a pressure sensor in our GST, the annular pressure was constantly logged during drilling. By keeping a close eye on this data, the risk of blow-outs in the protected dune area was minimized.

All involved parties were very satisfied with the accuracy of the pilot hole: a compliment for Brownline’s tool and service!

A few years ago, Brownline also surveyed four drillings, to connect an earlier DolWin wind farm. Read more about this project here.

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