MPI Windfarm Construction Vessels Win Award
MPI Offshore’s new generation of offshore wind turbine installation vessels are expanding the envelope of the renewables industry, taking it into deeper water and harsher environments. With a new generation of offshore windfarms under construction in more remote locations and harsher environments, MPI Offshore has started operating two new advanced wind turbine installation vessels. These specialised vessels – MPI Adventure and MPI Discovery – were designed by GustoMSC and built at the Cosco Qidong and Cosco Nantong shipyards in China. They can operate in deeper waters and harsher sea and weather conditions than the previous generation of windfarm construction vessels, increasing the operational envelope of the offshore renewables industry.
Wind Power Seen Surging as Custom Barges Cut Cost
Offshore wind-power producers from Dong Energy A/S to RWE AG are building custom ships at record rates to reduce the cost of the technology which is three times as pricey as electricity from coal plants. As many as 20 vessels, some with movable legs which reach the seafloor, will come onto the market in the next few years, reducing chartering costs of as much as 200,000 euros ($261,000) a day, said Marc Seidel, an offshore engineer at Suzlon Energy Ltd., which supplies turbines to Germany’s RWE. A lack of specialized installation ships has forced companies to hire barges designed for oil exploration, holding up work at projects such as EON AG’s Robin Rigg wind farm off Scotland’s western coast.
