DEME to Use Seaqualize’s Lifting Tool for Vineyard Wind 1

Seaqualize has signed a contract with DEME Offshore US to deploy their newly developed offshore lifting device, the Heave Chief 1100 (HC1100), on Vineyard Wind 1, the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States.

DEME Offshore and Seaqualize have been working together on developing a novel tool, enabling a Jones Act-compliant feeder-barge concept.

The Heave Chief 1100 will be used for transferring wind turbine components to and from heaving supply vessels. As a Balanced Heave Compensator (BHC), the unit can compensate a vessel’s heave motions and safely quick-lift loads up to 1100mT, although being battery powered, Seaqualize said.

Based on the 600mT prototype that the company tested with Van Oord in 2021, the new model has an improved design to better serve the offshore wind market, according to the manufacturer.

It has an increased load capacity of 1100mT, required to balance the 15 MW generation’s turbine components, and a longer stroke to handle the larger motions of smaller supply vessels.

The unit, for which the company expects to announce an additional contract before the end of the year, also offers a single lift point for operational efficiency and the new design further minimizes dynamic load fluctuations impacting the crane and offers passive safety procedures, Seaqualize said.

The HC1100’s “follow-mode” allows the full load to match the movements of the target vessel and if required, quick-lift operations are fully reversible.

DEME Offshore is responsible for transporting and installing 62 GE Haliade-X 13 MW wind turbines as well as its foundations for the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project.

Each turbine will be transported in components from the supply harbour to DEME’s installation vessel Sea Installer.

“We contracted Seaqualize to de-risk the Vineyard Wind project: their solution is a novel, but realistic method to safely transfer the delicate components, minimizing the risk of damage and delays. We think this is how Feeder Barge operations should be done going forward”, Glenn Carton, Project Director Vineyard Wind, DEME.

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.

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