Building Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea | Free Documentary Shorts

the airfield in Emden Micah's adventure starts here while in the helicopter she has to wear a special survival suit here we go Micah's pilots are Lucas and Kai they need a good 25 minutes for the 40 kilometres out to the wind farm dozens of wind farms are being built out at sea a world of its own consisting of steel and electronics by 2020 15 percent of our energy is to be produced in the north and Baltic seas [Music] as the wind farm increased the air traffic yes enormous li you have to imagine it like a huge construction site out there the workers are there for several weeks and considering this several hundred maybe thousands of people someone is always going home like a city in water yeah that's how you have to think of it this is such a unique view you can see the North Sea Islands you can see the shipping and even some wind turbines this is overwhelming exciting and beautiful touch down on the sea Challenger for three days Micah will accompany the men here while they work one of the assembly workers Maurice get is already waiting for them helicopters gone I've got my warm jacket here's your helmet hey thank you hello so I have to wear this yeah absolutely safety first this is crazy how high are these they're about a hundred meters 100 meters what happens if it gets windy not much really they're secured with pretty strong bolts so if we get high waves in the next few days they'll easily be able to withstand man these are the blades yes three per system they're pretty massive how these things one blade 75 meters they're currently the largest in the world that can be sent offshore what does a blade weigh 28 tons are they hollow inside yes if we were to fill them now they'd be too heavy we wouldn't be able to get them to the top of the nacelle then the whole thing would collapse can I look inside sure let's go you're not afraid of heights no all right then and up we go 40 meters above sea level Wow you can't see the end of this no it's a bit dark back there hello awesome totally awesome this is huge yeah the blade is four and a half meters in diameter and these screws will be used to screw it together later they go into the top of the nacelle into the hub and these are the bolts they're screwed into them afterwards the wind turbine must be firmly anchored in the seabed for this purpose a steel tube is driven about 35 metres into the ground the tower is then placed on top of this steel tube only then can the nacelle and the rotor blades be assembled a single turbine tower and nacelle and blades weighs almost a thousand tonnes standing here I feel so small yes I get that the size is enormous only we don't see it anymore because we see it every day it doesn't stand out so much anymore we have the utmost respect for it we have to it's a good thing too otherwise you can't survive out here mistakes can have serious consequences the cold wind wind farm contains around a thousand wind turbines each with a capacity of six megawatts together this amounts to 600 megawatts equivalent to the output of half a nuclear power plant strong winds and high waves make the construction of the gigantic wind turbines a technical challenge the turbines can only be built under optimal conditions that's why every time window needs to be used on the ship you work 24 hours a day which means there are always people in the cabins who are sleeping so you have to be a bit quiet but a band has to work the night shift now so I'll go get him out of his cabin band held is on board as a technician can I come in of course you can do you feel at home in here well what does homely mean we live in a limited space you have to make yourself as comfortable as possible of course there are things you miss around here things you have at home for example a living room it's just past 5:30 what's coming up next week dinner and then from 5:30 there's the prep meeting our mealtimes until half past 6:00 the same in the morning let's eat then it'll be a long night there are 60 men on board mostly crane drivers and fitters besides the ship's crew one shift lasts two weeks bent and his colleagues are on the ship for 14 days without interruption not much else happens here except sleeping working and eating thank you thank you for breakfast plenty of meat yeah it's not so great if you have a breakfast like this but well you have to eat something on board you can eat 24 hours a day twice a day you get warm food but that's what the boys need for their work it takes a lot of energy and it's delicious the sea Challenger sets course for the next foundation from the bridge the ship is steered by a precise navigation system second officer Karol Volk can maneuver the ship to within ten centimeters of the previously calculated position once the ship is stationary we will be jacked up how does that work this is my final position this is the foundation as soon as I tell my work colleagues they start operating the legs they have four levers there and they practically Ram the legs into the mine and push forward on the looking head for so the ship pushes itself into the ground yes the legs are pushed in in two diagonals with up to 8,000 tonnes upon and this is what it looks like when the ship is in position the legs go down all engines are switched off and the so-called jacking up begins the ship pushes itself out of the water the 132 meter long sea challenger then rises up the ship becomes a working platform that stands firmly on four legs [Music] we are going up but will it be exactly straight well as you can see from the color here the leg can also be a little crooked due to the nature of the ground that's why the paint is a little Gray's to you how fast does it go up so the leg is now going up 40 centimeters a minute in this mode so quick it's loud crazy [Music] finally the sea Challenger is jacked up band held the heavy lifting supervisor supervises the construction of the plant we have docked on and the crane is standing what happens now what happens now the wind is very high right now so we wait for the time window to pull and as soon as the wind starts to drop again our guys are ready and we carry on it's about the tower we're going to pull the tower which weighs about 500 tons I can't see the end of the towers from here and the boys take that with their giant toys and take that well it's not that simple the men need a safe time window of 3 hours to place the tower precisely on the foundation huge it is impossible to put into words what is happening on this ship the tower is almost a hundred meters high and weighs a good 400 tons only when the boats between the tower and the foundation are tightly screwed is the tower stable enough to mount the nacelle and the blades these are our spanners to not toy this is a big spanner exactly 18 millimeters wide for our bolts for the connection between tower and foundation this is cute just like everything on this ship 2:00 in the morning break time oh it's nice and warm would you like a coffee yeah the long nights are exhausting yeah yes it's really exhausting what about you do you have problems with fatigue well the problem is when you come in from the outside if you stay outside it's fine micah is getting tired bent health has been working under these conditions for about four years you look fitter than me well I'm used to it that's the difference at the beginning it's hard the waiting times get to you a bit there's nothing you can do exactly right it's like now you can't do anything while our colleagues are bolting things together come be an Akuma home a three o'clock at night then a cell with the generator is up next the heart of the whole turbine the generator converts the power of the wind into usable energy at dawn they get the go-ahead to assemble the individual rotor blades norisse kit needs a safe window of time to bring the blades to the top fortunately the weather forecast looks good for the next seven hours there should be almost no wind carefully maurice attaches the carrying belts and secures the machine Oh still awake yes just about you still look quite fit it's fascinating you control this whole huge machine with its remote control don't you get nervous when you push these expensive things around with this thing yes but you shouldn't worry about it too much I get nervous when it's too windy but today the weather is perfect for working that means down here you're working blind yeah I depend on what my colleagues up there tell me I can see how the blade is coming in if it's at the right angle but in the end they give me the instructions from up there because it's all about millimeters pinpoint accuracy each blade weighs a good 30 tons [Music] yes everyone is very focused right now the guys have to lift these huge rotor blades out of the shaft they're hanging in really big loops and they control everything from here talking to each others and there's no room for mistakes now that would be very bad the blades are lifted as if in slow motion again the wind mustn't increase or the installation at a height of 120 meters would be at risk [Music] marreese also works in shifts 14 days at sea 14 days at home as you can see we still have a bit of work to do the Foundation's are everywhere waiting for us to stick a few towers on them yes but I mean this is an incredibly exciting workplace yeah it is absolutely I can't imagine doing anything else work in the morning back on the night it's not for you know now 14 days is great and also compatible with the family then it's more fun what do they say when you have to go did a bit sad of course but I'll be back mica must now take her leave from the men of the North Sea I am really impressed with the concentration the precision with which the guys act here built these huge facilities and everything to make sure that in the future we can still charge our mobile phones and I think if the North sees one of the most beautiful and exciting places to work in the world all things and outwards clips were their base [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Shorts

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, Short Documentary, Short Docs, Documentary (TV Genre), Documentary - topic, Doc Bites, Wind Farm, offshore wind farm, offshore windpark, Electricity, Sustainable Energy, Green Energy, Climate Change, North Sea, North Sea Wind Farm, German Bight, green energy, renewable energy, clean energy, Wadden Sea, Wind Energy, Wind Turbine, Wind Power

Id: YIKntGJflpo

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020