OFFSHORE (PT 1) Ӏ SECTOR SNAPSHOT
waters. Once each monopile was safely in the sea it was towed, using tugs, to Van Oord’s specialist heavy lift installation vessel, the Svanen, which was ready in the field to lift and install it into the seabed. “We made a completely new crane design for this project, which is not typical but something we felt was necessary with the growth of monopile foundations,” explains Stefan de Vries, project manager at Mammoet. “Once everything was agreed, we needed to ensure the new MTC cranes would be ready. We collaborated with Van Oord to make sure they meet their needs. “Initially, it was planned that the cranes would lift 2,800 tonnes but we suggested their maximum capacity match that of the Svanen to ensure consistent limits across the project. So, we
increased their combined lift capacity to 3,200 tonnes”. With the ballast weight of
the MTC crane positioned much further away from the pivot point of the boom, in comparison to a large crawler crane, the load- bearing pressure was far less. This helped to spread the load over a greater distance, avoiding the need for specialist foundations or temporary civil work. Van Oord said the project
involved the largest monopiles it had ever installed, also made possible by earlier upgrades to the Svanen.
During the installation Van
Oord deployed long-range drone technology, in partnership with Skyports Drone Services, as part of a pilot project. The goal was to transport items from the shore
WIND INSTALLATION VESSEL COMPLETES DEBUT JOB
Van Oord is celebrating the successful completion of its new offshore wind installation vessel Boreas’ debut job: the installation of 45 monopiles at Nordseecluster A. This was the fi rst phase of the 1.6 GW offshore wind farm in the German North Sea. The Boreas is the largest and most sustainable vessel of its kind, says Van Oord, and its maiden project is expected to generate renewable electricity for the equivalent of 1.6 million households. The remaining 60 monopiles will be installed at the second expansion stage, Nordseecluster B,
scheduled for 2027. “With the Boreas now operational and its fi rst assignment successfully completed, we are
well-positioned to accommodate the increase in scale in the offshore wind industry,” said Maurits den Broeder, managing director offshore energy at Van Oord.
to the offshore installation site, reducing reliance on supply vessels and the reducing the project’s environmental footprint. Van Oord says it's the first marine contractor to perform Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights to vessels in a wind farm under construction. Other wind farm loadout work Mammoet is involved in is with offshore design and construction specialist Seatrium. It has signed an agreement to execute the North Sea load-out of three substations for TenneT’s 2GW programme, which will connect large-scale offshore wind farms to the European mainland. The project will install a total of 15 (eight in the Netherlands, seven in Germany) high-voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore grid connection systems by 2032, each with a capacity of two gigawatts (2GW). Mammoet is also transporting substations for what, when finished, will be the world’s largest windfarm: Dogger Bank Wind Farm. Once complete it will provide an installed capacity of 3.6GW and power around six million homes annually. The wind farm is being
developed by SSE, Equinor and Vårgrønn in 3 phases, Dogger Bank A, B and C. Mammoet has been involved in each phase providing transportation for, and the weighing of, the project’s three offshore substations. Fabricated by Aibel,
the substations are critical components, collecting and converting the power from the transformers and sending the electricity ashore to power homes. They were constructed in stages at two different locations. The steel construction of the substations began in Aibel’s yard in Thailand, before being shipped to a second Aibel yard in Haugesund, Norway for further steelwork to be carried out and installation of transformers and other complex components. This required a load-out in Thailand (at Laem Chabang), a load-in in Norway (at Haugesund), and the final weighing and load-out for transport to the North Sea. The biggest challenge was sourcing the large number of Self-Propelled
34 CRANES TODAY
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