(With extra pictures) Van Oord has taken delivery of the Aeolus, its first transport and installation vessel for the construction of offshore wind farms.
The vessel was built at Sietas, a German shipbuilding yard in Hamburg. The innovative and advanced transport and installation vessel has a length of 139 m, 38 m in the beam, a design draught of 5.7 m and a cruising speed of 12 knots. The vessel is equipped with a crane that can lift more than 900 tonnes and has accommodation facilities for 75 crew. The installation vessel can be jacked up and can work in a water depth of up to 55 m.
First Project
The vessel’s first project will be the construction of the Luchterduinen offshore wind project, which is an Eneco energy company and Mitsubishi Corporation assignment. This project will be built 23 km off the Dutch coast near Noordwijk and Zandvoort. The wind farm will consist of 43 Vestas V112 wind turbines. In 2015, the wind farm will provide 129 Mw in green energy to almost 150,000 households. Luchterduinen will be operational after the summer of 2015.
As EPC contractor, Van Oord is responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of the foundations, the complete electrical infrastructure, including the offshore transformer station and the installation of the wind turbines.
Gemini Project
The vessel is already completely occupied for 2014, 2015 and 2016. After Luchterduinen, the vessel will be deployed on the Gemini project where 150 wind turbines (600 MW) are being installed 55 km off the coast of Schiermonnikoog in depths of 35 m. Van Oord has a share of ten per cent in this project, which has a total value of € 2.2 billion.
The album below contains extra pictures of the Aeolus at the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam taken by SWZ Maritime editor Hugo Dill. Please click the pop-out link (the squares at the bottom right) to view the pictures in their proper dimensions.
