Haizea Ships Record-Breaking Monopiles From Bilbao for World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

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Haizea Wind Group has delivered what it calls the largest monopiles ever manufactured in Southern Europe, shipping the 105-metre, 2,300-tonne steel foundations from its Port of Bilbao facility to Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 offshore wind project in the UK North Sea. The load-out, completed this month, underscores a sharp scaling-up in European offshore wind manufacturing capacity as the sector races to meet 2030 renewable energy targets.

The monopiles measure 11 metres in diameter and weigh more than 2,300 tonnes each. Haizea said they are the largest structures ever built in the Iberian Peninsula and rank among the biggest monopiles produced in Europe. The company is currently the only Spanish manufacturer capable of producing foundations at this scale. The operation required Grúas Aguado for port logistics, Cadeler for load-out and load-in, and Mammoet to move the units across the quay using self-propelled modular transporters.

The dimensions are not merely record-breaking. They reflect a structural shift in offshore wind supply chains. Turbines are growing heavier and taller, and so are the foundations that anchor them to the seabed. Each extra tonne and metre strains port infrastructure, vessel capacity, and heavy-lift coordination. For project cargo operators, Hornsea 3 is a live case study in how XXL components are reshaping berth requirements, crane specifications, and port access.

Cadeler’s purpose-built A-class vessel Wind Ally is installing the monopiles at the Hornsea 3 site, roughly 120 kilometres off the Norfolk coast. The vessel, delivered in September 2025, carries a 3,300-tonne crane and can transport up to six monopile sets per load. Cadeler began installation work in May this year and is handling the full transportation and installation scope for the project, a first for the company.

Haizea is not the only supplier. Dajin Heavy Industry, the Chinese manufacturer, has also completed its full monopile production scope for Hornsea 3. Dajin topped the European offshore wind monopile market in the first half of 2025 with a 29.1% share and has invested in its own deck carrier fleet to control shipping costs on long-haul deliveries. The dual-supplier arrangement, split between a European and an Asian fabricator, illustrates how developers are diversifying sourcing to balance cost, capacity, and geopolitical risk.

Hornsea 3 itself is a 2.9 GW project that will become the single largest offshore wind farm in the world once operational in 2027. It will power more than 3.3 million UK homes using roughly 200 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW turbines. The scale means that every foundation, cable, and turbine delivery is a project cargo event in its own right.

With installation now under way and manufacturing deliveries continuing through 2026, the focus will shift to whether European port and vessel capacity can keep pace with a pipeline of similarly sized projects. The Port of Bilbao has positioned itself as a hub for XXL offshore wind components, but few other Southern European terminals currently have the draft, crane capacity, and quay strength to handle units of this magnitude. If demand continues on its current trajectory, infrastructure investment, not manufacturing capability, may become the binding constraint.