DEME Jack-Up Readies For Next-Gen Offshore Wind Turbines, First Stop USA

DEME Offshore’s DP2 jack-up installation vessel Sea Installer will undergo a crane replacement to increase the vessel’s lifting capacity from the current 900 tonnes to 1,600 tonnes.

Being built by Huisman, the new crane will enable Sea Installer to handle the next generation of offshore wind turbines, DEME said.

The upgraded Sea Installer will be deployed for the first time at the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the US.

Vineyard Wind 1 will feature 62 GE Haliade-X offshore turbines. These giants have a 220-metre rotor, 107-metre blades and will be 248 metres high, DEME said.

”Yet again, DEME is taking the lead and supporting the development of the offshore wind industry just as it has been doing for the last 20 years,” Marro Vreys, Business Unit Director Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) at DEME Offshore, said.

”We are willing to make the necessary investment in new technology to make sure that our fleet is ready for the future. This allows us to maintain our position as the industry leader in WTG installation and also to assist the offshore wind sector as it looks to take the next step, deploying even more powerful turbines.”

Vineyard Wind 1 will be DEME’s first offshore wind project in the US.

Sea installer is currently deployed at the 1.4 GW Hornsea Two offshore wind farm in the UK.