The recently acquired MPI Resolution in the Van Oord colours, for the first time. (Photograph: Van Oord Offshore)
ACTIVE WORLDWIDE IN THE OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY SECTOR by Paul Schaap, PAS Publicaties
Once again in 2019, Dutch offshore contractors and their suppliers were closely involved worldwide in the design and construction of offshore wind farms. The best-known players in this market are Van Oord and Boskalis, both of which operate a fleet of offshore construction vessels designed specially for this task. Well-known crane operators like Heerema Marine Contractors, Seaway 7 and Allseas, and companies like Sif, HSM Offshore, Damen Shipyards, Fugro, Acta Marine and Vroon Offshore Services are however also active in this sector. In both 2018 and 2019, Van Oord regularly hit the headlines for its role as main contractor for the construction of the Deutsche Bucht Offshore Wind Farm in the German sector of the North Sea. The first milestone in this project was reached in January 2019, when all 31 monopiles were installed by the jack-up vessel Seajacks Scylla. Each pile was 78 metres long and weighed 1,100 tonnes. Two additional monobucket foundations were subsequently installed, and the inter-array cables in the 269 MW offshore wind farm were laid by the company’s own cablelay vessel Nexus. The Nexus is equipped with the 30
NETHERLANDS SUPPLIERS CATALOGUE 2020
special Dig-It trencher, a tool for digging in and burying inter-array cables. The water depth at the site of this project was 40 metres. The heavy-lift vessel Aeolus was deployed to install the 33 MHI Vestas turbines, each generating 8 MW. Other special vessels involved in the project were the JB-115 from Jack-Up Barge, the accommodation vessel DP Galyna operated by Chevalier Floatels and the crane vessel Seaway Strashnov from Seaway 7. Van Oord successfully completed the work on this project at the end of 2019. In July, Van Oord announced the installation in British waters of all 102 three-legged jacket foundations
