A consortium of offshore wind companies, including bp, TotalEnergies, RWE, Vattenfall, EnBW, Iberdrola, Ocean Winds, Orsted, Equinor, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Vestas, GE Vernova, and C1 Connections, has initiated a Joint Industry Project (JIP) to bring the C1 Wedge Connection technology to commercial-scale deployment. This technology will be used in Monopile-Transition Piece and Tower-Foundation connections in offshore wind projects.
The Wedge Connection JIP aims to provide insights into the production supply chain, from flange manufacturing to welding flanges to can sections. With wind turbines growing in size, traditional L-flange designs often fail to meet the required capacity. The C1 Wedge Connection, developed since 2017 and first introduced in a 14 MW turbine in 2021, addresses this issue. It received the A-level component certificate from DNV in 2023 and has since been installed in several projects, proving its viability as an alternative to bolted L-flanges.
The C1 Wedge Connection offers higher ultimate and fatigue resistance and a lightweight design, making it a commercially attractive alternative. As part of the project, full-scale flanges will be manufactured by GRI and Shandong Iraeta, and welded to can sections by German monopile supplier EEW.
