New design for a specialist wind farm ship

Been reading this news on the MarineLog magazine.

“RWE Innogy, a unit of German power utility RWE AG, has engaged a consortium of Wärtsilä and IMS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, to provide the basic design and consultancy services for the offshore wind farm construction vessels it is building at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME),

The ships are jack-up crane vessels tailored specifically for year-round construction of offshore wind farms and designed to remain operational under harsh Northern European sea and wind conditions.

The vessels are 100 m long and 40 m wide, and feature an 800-ton crane for transporting and handling the foundations for the latest generation of up to 5 MW and 6 MW offshore wind turbines, as well as the turbine towers, nacelles, rotors and blades. The vessels have sufficient deck area and deadweight capacity to carry the components for up to four complete wind turbine units or several foundations. For operation in shallow water, a four-point mooring system is used, while in deeper waters a DP2 dynamic positioning system controlling steerable thrusters is employed.

The vessels are designated to undertake foundation and turbine installation at RWE Innogy’s currently planned wind farms "North Sea East", "Innogy North Sea 1" and "Gwynt y Mor". “

 

Reference:

MarineLog magazine

Wind turbine ship gears up | Vietnam Maritime Social Network

Wind turbine ship gears up

Written by Perter Clarkson Thursday, 03 September 2009 11:57

In response to the emerging offshore wind power market, DNV is launching the world’s first class notation for offshore wind turbine installation units.

The market for wind turbine installation units is growing rapidly as the offshore wind industry picks up pace.

The classification of these units is based on DNV’s Offshore Service Specification DNV OSS-101 ‘Rules for Classification of Offshore Drilling and Support Units’, which was originally developed for classifying drilling and production vessels used in the oil and gas industry.

Wind turbine installation units may be column-stabilized, self-elevating or ship-shaped units that are tailor made for the installation and maintenance of fixed and floating wind power equipment.

They are designed to install the different equipment, such as foundations, columns, generator houses and blades, piece by piece by crane lifts or in one operation using lowering techniques.

“Compared to traditional oil and gas units, these vessels have a different set of safety and technical issues and are not normally designed for the hazards of the oil and gas industry, i.e. exposure to extreme weather and hydrocarbons leading to a risk of fire and explosions. This, in addition to increased requests from the industry, has motivated us to launch the new class notation,” says Henning Carlsen, the business development manager in DNV’s Offshore Classification unit.

“DNV has been involved in the wind turbine installation unit market since 2003, when it classed the Mayflower installation vessel. Today, we are in the forefront with new projects in all the major home markets for offshore wind farms, and we expect a significant increase in the coming years as we see several new projects are in different stages of development,” he explains.

The increased involvement in the classification of wind turbine installation vessels also falls naturally into DNV’s already broad portfolio of services to the wind energy market, including comprehensive certification and qualification projects relating to floating and fixed wind turbines

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