Singapore-headquartered Cyan Renewables has contracted Ulstein Design & Solutions as the designer of a series of new floating foundation installation vessels (FFIVs) dedicated to offshore wind. Cyan feels the new FFIVs can reduce the growing shortage of heavy lift installation vessels.

‘We are very pleased that Cyan recognizes our added value and is placing their trust in us to realise their ambitions in offshore wind,’ says Edwin van Leeuwen, Managing Director at Ulstein Design & Solutions BV. ‘Back in time, we predicted a lack of foundation installation vessels and as developments go fast, our R&D focus has been on future-oriented FIV designs to suit the exponential growth of offshore wind.’

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Methanol dual-fuel

The new FFIVs will feature adequate deck space and crane capacity to meet developments in foundation design, including monopiles and jackets. In addition, they will also have low emission capability, using a hybrid power system consisting of dual-fuel engines (methanol), shore power and a battery energy storage system.

‘Part of our R&D work included a new method to develop the business case and ship design simultaneously. With this Ulstein Blended Design method, we explored thousands of ship designs to find the most future-proof solutions,’ says Ko Stroo, Product Manager/Lead Naval Architect in Ulstein Design & Solutions BV. ‘Working with multiple future growth scenarios for offshore wind, allows us to support Cyan in finding the optimum business case and vessel design.’

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