China: COSCO Names New Wind Turbine Installation Vessel for A2SEA

On July 24th, 2012, the third generation wind turbine installation jack up, N370, was named SEA INSTALLER at COSCO (Qidong) Offshore base. This vessel is being designed and built for the Danish owner A2SEA as part of the Dong Energy Power A/S.

It is the world’s most advanced wind turbine installation vessel, which, along with a high of degree of automation, also provides an additional and fully integrated-ability in transportation, lifting and installation of a wide range of large scale generator components.

COSCO Shipyard Group has the independent intellectual property rights of this series of marine offshore vessels, in both basic and detailed design. The successful building of SEA INSTALLER truly marks the establishment of a full capability in the design & construction of advanced third generation wind turbine offshore installation jack up units in China.

As demanded in the specification, the design and build fulfils all the strict specifications of both DNV Class and the Danish Maritime Authority rules. In the design, a number of advanced marine technologies were adopted, including a DP-2 dynamic positioning system and an all-electric propulsion system, so the vessel has excellent mobility between the pier and wind farm, and accurate dynamic positioning ability in the floating condition.

It is equipped with four cylindrical hydraulic leg lifting systems and an 800 tonne heavy hydraulic crane. This greatly increases the main deck loading area making it suitable for 5MW to 7MW windmill installations. The hydraulic leg lifting system can load 10 sets of windmill components each time, which fulfils the DNV CLEAN requirements for environmental protection. This vessel is very suitable for future European offshore wind power projects and has very broad market prospects.

Following the successful delivery of two second generation wind turbine installation jack ups, the third generation wind turbine installation jack up SEA INSTALLER series is now being designed and constructed by COSCO Shipyard. The yard has also started construction of the second vessel in this series. The COSCO Shipyard constantly works to enrich its experience in this field.

At the naming ceremony, the Godmother Mrs. Jonna R. Lausen named this vessel SEA INSTALLER. Mr. Jens F. Hansen, the CEO of A2SEA, highly praised the high quality construction standards and capabilities of COSCO Nantong Shipyard and expressed his desire to further strengthen cooperation in developing more and higher level Green and low carbon offshore products together.

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Offshore WIND staff, August 27, 2012; Image: A2SEA