Today, amid great public attention, the most powerful heavy-lift jack-up vessel ‘INNOVATION’ was named in Bremerhaven by Mrs Geertrui Van Rompuy-Windels, Europe’s First Lady and spouse of Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.
HGO InfraSea Solutions, a joint company (50/50) of HOCHTIEF Solutions and GeoSea (a company of the Belgian DEME group) built the most powerful heavy-lift jack-up vessel INNOVATION at the CRIST shipyard in Poland/Gdynia. As ship owner, HGO InfraSea Solutions undertakes the role of a ship developer and ship manager of heavy-lift jack-up vessels, used to build and maintain offshore wind farms as well as offshore oil and gas facilities.
Since August 2012, the INNOVATION is in operation for the project Global Tech I in the North Sea. The INNOVATION does not only lay the foundation for safer and more cost-effective offshore wind farm installations, but also sets new standards with outstanding characteristics. With its high-performance 1,500 t crane and a load capacity of up to 8,000 t, the INNOVATION enables safe loading and installation of 6 MW+ wind turbines with overall heights of more than 120 metres as well as heavy foundations in water depths of up to 65 metres. The all-in-one solution – loading, transporting and installing – makes the INNOVATION absolutely self-sufficient.
Alain Bernard, CEO of DEME : “The specific scope and expertise of all DEME companies allow the DEME Group to offer global packages for a wide range of offshore operations to clients in the field of renewable energy, oil& gas needs and mining activities. The INNOVATION further completes the services that the DEME Group can offer as a total solution provider. Soon will also be launched the new Scaldis craneship with a unique lifting capacity of 4,000 tons.”
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. The INNOVATION adds a whole new dimension to this type of specialized offshore work.” adds Luc Vandenbulcke, General Manager of GeoSea .
The 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 4 months.
With Samsoe, Borkum West, Walney, Ormonde, C-Power, Baltic II, Northwind, Alpha Ventus on order or completed, GeoSea lays the foundations of 1.432MW of offshore wind.
On the Northwind Project, which has been assigned to GeoSea, we will soon see the INNOVATION making its first steps in the Belgian offshore market for GeoSea.
GeoSea will further perform work on the 3 Belgian offshore windfarm concessions RENTEL, SEASTAR and MERMAID which the DEME Group has recently acquired together with other partners within OTARY nv. The GeoSea fleet and the INNOVATION will render their services on these projects.
GeoSea is world leader in innovative techniques with recent developments in Flidar, Highwind and its successful and unique pre-piling systems.
The deployment of the ‘INNOVATION’ in German, Belgian and other European waters will undoubtedly contribute to reaching the European Commission’s ’20-20-20’ targets with regard to renewable energy by 2020.
[mappress]
Source: DEME, September 3, 2012