(Click to enlarge.) This 25,000-ton crane is helping to build an offshore wind farm. Source: Vatttenfall

A massive suction bucket jacket foundation has been installed for Vattenfall’s 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in Aberdeen Bay, Scotland.

The project is one of the first offshore wind projects to deploy the foundations at commercial scale. Each of the 11 steel-jacket foundations weighs as much as 10 Boeing 747s.

The 25,000-ton Asian Hercules III — which has a lifting capacity of 5,000 tons — lifted and installed the first 1,800-ton structure March 25.

A suction caisson essentially is an upturned bucket that is embedded in the marine sediment. The technology was developed in part for anchors that are subjected to large tension forces due to waves and stormy weather and were first used in North Sea oil operations in the 1980s.

The 92.4 megawatt wind farm will test next-generation technology and, once constructed, will have installed capacity equal to 70 percent of Aberdeen's domestic electricity demand.