Burntisland Orders Granada Pythons for Beatrice

Burntisland Fabrications Limited has contracted Granada Material Handling to design, manufacture, deliver and commission 26 davit crane units for the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project.

Each of the Granada Python crane units has been specifically designed for Beatrice and the challenging marine environment in which it will operate, the Manchester-based company said. One Python crane unit will be fitted to each of the 26 platforms being supplied by Burntisland.

Each crane unit measures approximately 4 meters in height, 7.5 meters in radius, and weighs 2,000 kgs.

The maximum lifting capacity of 1250 kgs is needed to hoist the heavier serviceable components from the supply vessel to the laydown area on the platforms of the foundation platform.

Granada is now looking to place orders and sub-contract specialist areas of work to other UK businesses, and will deliver the crane units over an 8 month period.

“The BOWL contract is not only great news for Granada but also for our UK based supply chain,” Mark Sidwell, director of Granada Material Handling, said.

”Granada has ambitious plans for this market sector and having supplied over 600 offshore davits is one of Europe’s leading offshore wind farm davit crane suppliers. We are currently working with designers, wind farm developers and turbine manufacturers to further enhance the product range to ensure the very latest developments in lifting technology are made available to the rapidly expanding and ever developing offshore renewable market.”

The 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm is being developed in the Outer Moray Firth on the North Western point of the Smith Bank, Scotland, approximately 13 km off the Caithness coastline.

The wind farm will cover an area of up to 130 km2 and will consist of 84 Siemens 7MW turbines. The project is expected to be fully operational in 2019.