OFFSHORE RENEWABLES

Innovation goes to work in the North Sea

14 years ago

The most powerful heavy lift jack-up vessel, Innovation, was named in Bremerhaven in September by Mrs Geertrui Van Rompuy-Windels, Europes First Lady and spouse of Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.

A large crowd turned out for the naming ceremony of Innovation in Bremerhaven

HGO InfraSea Solutions, a joint company (50/50) of Hochtief Solutions and GeoSea (a company of the Belgian DEME group) built the vessel at the Crist shipyard in Poland, which will be deployed to build and maintain offshore wind farms as well as offshore oil and gas facilities.

Innovation has gone into operation for the project Global Tech I in the North Sea. With its high performance 1,500 ton crane and a load capacity of up to 8,000 tons, the vessel enables safe loading and installation of 6 MW+ wind turbines with overall heights of more than 120m as well as heavy foundations in water depths of up to 65m. It can load, transport and install wind turbines, providing an ‘all in one’ solution for developers.

GeoSea aims to further strengthen its position in the leading group of companies that specialise in developing renewable energy and building wind farms at sea. “After a track record of 35 years in innovative development and expertise in all complex offshore constructions, GeoSea reaches another milestone with this special purpose jack-up vessel. Innovation adds a whole new dimension to this type of specialized offshore work”, said GeoSea general manager Luc Vandenbulck.

Innovation will not be a pilot project in GeoSea’s wide experience in offshore wind farm construction. With its recent fleet of highly performing jack-up vessels such as Neptune and Goliath, it has installed this year the foundations of the Thornton C-Power project in a record time of less than four months. Along with Samsoe, Borkum West, Walney, Ormonde, C-Power, Baltic II, Northwind, Alpha Ventus on order or completed, GeoSea will lay the foundations of 1,432MW of offshore wind.

Innovation will soon work on the Northwind Project, which sees GeoSea make its first steps in the Belgian offshore market. The company will also perform work on the three Belgian offshore windfarm concessions Rentel, Seastar and Mermaid, which the DEME Group has recently acquired together with other partners within OTARY nv.