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announced wind-vessel) design. We may meters — new normal for turbines sizes links to Statoil, including its 67-turbine complained of suppliers’ rickety ? nances. not take much market share in install ves- now reaching 12 MW— are possible “in Dudgeon park, its just-installed Race- Today’s operator-supplier bonds are ro- sels but in cable-layers, hook-up and ser- an area where technicians are perform- bank wind park and a September 2017 bust, as illustrated by Esvagt signing a 15- vice. We’ll focus on that,” Mr. Urke says. ing assembly tasks at the same time”. contract for the Merkur project in Hol- year contract with MHI Vestas Offshore

GustoMSC — a wind pioneer with Interestingly, this GustoMSC design can land with a Sea Challenger fresh from Wind to deploy SOVs to both near-shore a hand in “80 percent” of the offshore “serve as a Jones Act compliant feeder the Racebank job of summer 2017! and remote European wind projects in wind-installation equipment out there, solution to a larger foreign vessel”. While a DOE report con? rms the “lack need of accommodation, W2W and the including Bold Tern and Brave Tern — From New Orleans, lift-boat maker of a project pipeline” has held up the company’s deployable safe transfer boats, has adapted a new jack-up installation AK Suda has also joined the fray recent- U.S. market, A2Sea con? rms Europe’s or STBs, for technicians, tools and turbine concept to its view of the U.S. wind ly by developing its JG series of wind- projects keep the company busy. Like spares. In 2010, ESVAGT brought SOVs market as “emerging”. GustoMSC offers turbine installation vessel, or WTIV. The A2Sea, European turbine maker Siemens to the market that offered offshore-style shipyards and the growing numbers of ? rst, JG6000P, “works within all U.S. Gamesa seems to busy for the U.S. mar- leisure, of? ce, storage and workshops of

U.S. wind operators self-propelled and staging ports” and can carry and install 8 ket: “No offshore projects for now. It’s special interest should ? oating wind take unpropelled jack-ups, the latter for “the MW turbines. AK Suda and GustoMSC a market where we see potential in the projects succeed farther out into the U.S. more risk-averse.” might represent the bulk of U.S. wind- next few years. It’s an important market 200-mile limit, as is envisioned.

In October 2017, “the economical, safe installation vessel offerings. of the future for us,” they write in a let- So, is the U.S. an Esvagt target mar- and ef? cient” SEA-3250 LT installation ter. Like the U.S. grid operators “to-be”, ket? “The short answer is no,” says busi- jack-up was unveiled: “Currently there is they can only be vague when it comes ness development manager, Ole Ditlev Europeans contrasts no equipment available in the U.S. that Saving enormous sums, the Hamburg- to vessel needs. “We work with nearly Nielsen. “ESVAGT aims to follow and is capable of installing present and future based Fred Olsen Windcarrier’s jack-up all operators of wind-turbine installation assist the expansion of the renewable heavy foundations and turbines, due to boat crossed the Atlantic with wind-tur- vessels. The challenge in the U.S. is that industry, where SOV’s create value. We insuf? cient carrying & lifting capability bine components aboard, a ? rst for the … If you need a jack-up for a turbine in- will therefore be ready to follow our in terms of both capacity and height,” vessel type and a hard-to-match feat. stallation, it might be a challenge.” customers out of Europe as well. This the company says, echoing the view in “Fred Olsen Windcarrier sees the U.S. as requires that the local regulations enable

European. The SEA 3250 LT joins the an important and potentially world-lead- ESVAGT to perform its services there.” Specialty vessels larger, wind-capable self-propelled NG- ing offshore wind market,” business- When this writer visited the East of Meanwhile, British advocacy Subsea 98000C-US and its NG-3750C feeder development manager, Stuart Thornton, England years ago, Britain was seeing UK now advises its members to seek unit in solving “this (? nancial and instal- writes in an email. The company’s twin its ? rst wind turbines novel designs for wind work to wherever it may be to off- lation-capacity) bottleneck.” The SEA lift-boats can install any of today’s tur- crew-transfer vessels. For the uninitiated, set lost oil-and-gas opportunity. In Au- 3250 can carry two of the largest turbines bine sizes to ? xed, seabed foundations. there was something worrying about the gust 2017, the organization put world “while underway” to the installation A2Sea is typical of the seasoned, off- bump-up against the grouted ? anges tur- offshore-wind spending at over £350 bil- site. Heavy lifts to heights of over 130 shore wind European supply chain with bine towers rested on. Grid operators then lion through to 2026.

Crew comforts:

The Esvagt Faraday

Photo: Siemens Gamesa 64 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • NOVEMBER 2017

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