CMHI’s Wind Turbine Shuttle Design Gets DNV GL Certificate

DNV GL has presented China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) with an Approval in Principle (AiP) certificate for a wind turbine shuttle design.

Unlike other wind farm installation vessels, the WTS has a small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design, DNV GL said.

This results in very low resistance at the design draught (16m) and excellent seakeeping performance, good motion behaviour characteristics, and high transit speed of 14 knots.

Capable of transporting and installing two fully assembled wind turbines or two wind turbine foundations, the vessel has a highly redundant dynamic positioning system installed and the wind turbine hoist tackles are equipped with an active system to compensate for the heave motion of the vessel, according to DNV GL.

The WTS can provide a “one-piece” installation service for wind turbines, as well as jacket foundations, piles, and other components. The design was assessed according to the class notations: 1A Column-stabilised Wind turbine installation unit Crane-offshore DYNPOS(AUTRO) E0.

DNV GL’s Head of Technical Centre China Falk Rothe handed over the certificate to Dr. Lixin Xu from China Merchants Offshore Technology and Research Center (CM-OTRC).

“CMHI and DNV GL have been partners in strategic cooperation for many years. Together, we both aim to not only set industry standards in ship and offshore unit designs, but contribute to safer and more environmental-friendly operation,” said Norbert Kray, DNV GL’s Regional Manager Greater China.

“We are very grateful that CMHI have made us their first choice for classification services for these two projects and we look forward to strengthening our cooperation in the future.”