New Floating Installation Concept for Offshore Wind
Conquest Offshore, together with deugro Denmark A/S, has developed an installation system for monopiles and transition pieces, supported by Temporary Works Design (TWD) and Barge Master.
Aiming to produce a solution for optimizing the installation process within the offshore wind industry, the parties have combined their experience and knowledge of floating installation, offshore skidding, upending, pile handling and motion compensated tools and to develop the new floating installation concept.
The newly designed skidding system makes a full deck load on the 136 meter barge possible. The ability to upend monopiles (from deck and floating) and the use of a specially designed motion compensated pile gripper provide the means for floating installation. During hammering hydraulic cylinders actively compensate the motions of the barge to ensure the right inclination of the pile.
Conventionally, monopiles are installed by jack-up units with higher day rates and less deck space than floating barges. By taking advantage of the large deck space on the barge, the new solution can reduce the time and costs needed for transportation of monopiles and transition pieces and use the barge as floating storage - which altogether means that efficient floating installation has a much more competitive day rate, the developers said.
On top of this, the floating installation concept is completely independent of the soil conditions and water depth.