Jumbo successfully display tidal installation capability
Jumbo Offshore has recently completed a short series of tests to demonstrate its installation capabilities in high tidal current velocities.
Jumbo’s DP2 offshore heavy lift vessels proved ideally suited for the installation of tidal generators currently being developed by different companies, such as Swanturbines, OpenHydro and Atlantis.
To demonstrate the capacity of the DP2-system, Jumbo mobilised its HLV Fairplayer to the Orkney Islands test site of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) for a three day test campaign. During this campaign, the vessel showed its potential in the company of several tidal energy researchers and developers. Amongst them were representatives of EMEC, Swanturbines (subsea generators) and other developers.
The tests were successful and confirmed Jumbo’s ability to install generators weighing up to 1,100 tons.
Because Jumbo’s vessels can transport and install up to eight units in a single trip and have dynamic positioning systems, Jumbo can make optimum use of available tidal windows. This leads to efficient installation as well as removing logistics issues.
With over 3,000 sq/m of cargo deck, Jumbo’s DP2-vessels have the capacity to transport and install the largest and heaviest of marine generators directly onto the seabed within a tidal flow site. The sea trials demonstrated the vessel’s ability to hold station and precisely manoeuvre in the most aggressive and fast flowing spring tides.
‘What we did was a field confirmation of the vessel’s behaviour. When the opportunity came up to engage one of our vessels in a field trial we did however use that possibility to confirm in real life the behaviour that our calculations predicted. The tidal currents at the EMEC test site are very different from what we encounter in our day to day transportation and installation practice, so this is something that we had not been able to confirm earlier. The results of the trial gave us additional comfort that our vessels can be used to install heavy loads on the seabed in high current environments’, said Erik Kleijn, proposals and contracts manager for Jumbo Offshore.
‘Our vessels are quite unique in their ability to install large generators in one piece and thus make optimum use of tidal windows. The combination of DP and 1,000 ton lifting capacity is unique in the world and fits the requirements of the tidal generator developers perfectly. We think that the tidal energy industry is at an important juncture and will grow to become an industry that is just as important as, for instance, the offshore wind industry’.
