The Netherlands-based Barge Master will receive a total capital injection of EUR 7.5 million from the Energy Transition Fund Rotterdam and the existing shareholders for the development of its offshore wind feeder solution.
The company said that the challenge in the construction of offshore wind farms is the transport of the wind turbine components from the port to the wind farms located far off the coast and that the current method involves expensive installation vessels sailing up and down to pick up the components.
Barge Master has designed a motion-compensated platform, called the Feeder, which can be installed on existing vessels to keep the large turbine parts in balance so that they can be craned to the installation vessel at sea, the developer said.
According to Barge Master, in this way, the installation vessel can remain at sea and continue to install while being continuously supplied with new wind turbine components.
This means that vessels can be deployed more efficiently which results in reduced construction time, Barge Master said.
The company recently signed a multi-year contract with the Belgium-based DEME for the construction of Vineyard Wind 1, the first large-scale commercial offshore wind farm in the US.
The contract with DEME requires four Feeder platforms.
The 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1, a 50-50 joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) funds CI II and CI III, is currently under construction off the coast of Massachusetts.
Scheduled to deliver its first power to the grid in 2023, the wind farm will generate enough electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
“Thanks to the capital injection, Barge Master can finance the construction of these machines, which can also be used for other offshore wind farms in the future”, said Barge Master.
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