Turkey’s Cemre Shipyard has delivered a service operation vessel (SOV) ordered by Esvagt and chartered to MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.
MHI Vestas will use the Havyard-designed SOV for O&M operations on the Nobelwind and the Belwind offshore wind farms in the Belgian North Sea under a ten-year charter .
The SOV is equipped with dynamic positioning technology and two safe transfer boats to transfer technicians, tools and spare parts to the turbines.
The vessel will also provide accommodation for the company’s technicians for periods of up to two weeks due to the distance of the offshore wind farms from the coast.
MHI Vestas explained that using the service vessel means more focus on ensuring maximum availability of the wind turbines, since less time is spent in transition.
The SOV is 58.5m long, with a beam of 16.6m and will be able to accommodate up to 22 technicians, all in single cabins.
MHI Vestas’ technicians have used a refitted Esvagt vessel as service base to provide maintenance for the 165MW Belwind 1 project, comprising V90-3.0MW turbines.
Following the commissioning of the 165MW Nobelwind wind farm in May 2017, the new vessel will provide more storage space for spare parts and tools and more cabins for technicians.