Jack-Up Barge deploys newbuild to Germany

Both platforms will be deployed in the BARD Offshore 1 wind farm, the largest German offshore wind farm to date. The JB-115 and JB-117 will assist in the completion of the 400MW wind farm, which is located some 90 km northwest of the German East Frysian island of Borkum.

The JB-117 newbuild is currently being outfitted at the Graha yard in Indonesia, where it was built and launched in July. The JB-117 is scheduled to be transported to the Netherlands by October, prior to commissioning for its assignment off the Borkum shores.

The JB-117 is Jack-Up Barge’s largest newbuild to date. Built to a GustoMSC type SEA-3250 design, the platform measures 75.9m in length with a breadth of 40.0m. It is designed for a water depth of 50m, a 4m maximum wave height, a 1.0 m/s current and a wind speed of 25.7 m/s.

One of the platform’s main assets is the Favelle Favco built 1,000 ton crane, with a maximum boom length of 97m. The newbuild also offers BARD a free deck space of 2,500 m². Having already been involved in offshore wind farm installations off the Belgian and German coast, Jack-Up Barge commercial director Maarten Hardon said of the new contract, “To us this a relatively large contract and the JB-117 is very much the flagship. She is a very multifunctional unit.”

The initial contacts between BARD Group and Jack-Up Barge date back to last summer, when they worked together on the installation of the BARD 1 transformer station for BARD Offshore 1.

Jan Patrick Daniel of BARD Logistik GmbH said, “At the end of last year we were looking for an opportunity for a barge helping us with the installations on BARD Offshore 1. That is when we chartered the JB-115 for the installation of the turbine rotors.”

Looking for a replacement for one of the installation vessels for when the charter ended, BARD again called on Jack Up Barge. Daniel continued, “We worked with the JB-115. We know what their performance is like and we were very satisfied. Of course we did our calculations and we decided that economically and performance wise this was the best way to exchange the unit.”

The project area for the BARD Offshore 1 wind farm in the North Sea covers approximately 60 km², in a water depth of some 40m. The installation started in March 2010 and BARD will install 80 BARD 5.0 type wind turbines.

Sixteen wind turbines are already connected to the grid, delivering approximately 80 MW. Once completed BARD Offshore 1 will be able to meet the energy needs of 400,000 households.

The project is being supported by the European Commission in the framework of the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR) with a grant of €53.1m.