Europeans jack-up offshore innovation

The vessel was christened this week in Bremerhaven watched by around 600 guests from the European offshore market.

Innovation was developed for the construction and servicing of offshore wind farms and oil and gas plants at sea. It has a high deck cargo and a powerful 1,500 tonne crane used for fast and safe assembly of the latest generation foundations and wind turbines at great water depths. Hochtief is using the jack-up vessel first to build the North Sea wind farm – Global Tech I.

Ullrich Reinke, member of the executive board, Hochtief, said: “By developing the Innovation, Hochtief and GeoSea are making a crucial contribution to reducing the cost of building offshore wind power plants. Even under harsh conditions, the ship can be used 300 days a year. This gives investors a high level of planning reliability.”

The vessel was built in only two years at the Crist shipyard in Poland. Seventy percent of the purchasing volume comes from Germany. This includes the powerful Liebherr crane and the jack-up system from Siemens.

The Crist shipyard is currently fulfilling a follow-up order from Hochtief – the jack-up vessel Vidar will be put into service next year.

Hochtief is currently developing five North Sea wind farms in conjunction with an investment partner – 425 wind turbines are planned with total with an output of well in excess of two gigawatts. Once completed, the plants will secure more than one quarter of the German Federal Government’s expansion target for offshore wind in the run up to 2020.