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Work wise, think twice: Keeping our bodies safe

By Kirsten Bank Christensen, Vice President, HSEQ at A2SEA A/S

Musculoskeletal injuries are an ever-present hazard in the offshore wind installation business. They’re defined as injuries that affect the human body’s movement or musculoskeletal system (muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, discs, blood vessels and so on). And, while many have an obvious and immediate cause, such as a back injury caused by lifting a heavy object on an awkward angle, others may be ‘occupational illnesses’ – damages that creep up on a worker over many years. In any case, this is a serious issue that can have permanent and devastating consequences at both professional and personal levels.

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Tightening up the tendering process

By Tony Millward, Vice President, Tender & Contracts, A2SEA

Tendering has been part of the offshore wind industry since its inception – and it’s crucial for arriving at an efficient and safe turbine installation plan. Yet still today, there are elements of the tender process that can be improved. So what makes for a good process?

For me, one of the most important aspects to tendering is simply this: Who’s at the table? At A2SEA, we always front with a full team comprising commercial, technical and legal advisors in all phases. This hasn’t been the norm on the other side of the table – but it may well be where things are headed in the future.

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ENSURING SUPPLIER SAFETY VIA BEST PRACTICES (PART 2)

By Kirsten Bank Christensen, Vice President, HSEQ, A2SEA

Mobilisation projects are a valuable opportunity for cooperatively improving site safety together with many suppliers. This is the second of two posts describing how A2SEA’s ZERO HARM Mobilisation can lift supplier safety performance, and focusing on induction, HAZID/HAZOP workshops as well as results and learnings.

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Team Built.

A2SEA shows off its Olympic teamwork

By Jens Frederik Hansen, CEO, A2SEA

An organisation that can work well together as a team is the pride and joy of any CEO. And A2SEA’s recent team-building day was certainly a day to remember. Not just because my own team won (that’s not the point of a team-building day, of course), but because the company’s Team Built spirit truly came to the fore.

Arranged at Vejlefjord, and surrounded by a beautiful park and the fjords themselves, as many of the company’s staff as could be gathered for the day were put through their paces at the A2SEA Olympic Games. It was a great day that had everyone involved, at times giving their utmost in athletic performance, at other times cheering their team members on. And I’m quite sure the company’s current “From Fredericia to Berlin” fitness drive, which has almost everyone walking the equivalent of 10,000 steps a day for 60 days, helped us all to look more like Olympic stars, too.

The organisation really got behind the event – and we were lucky with the weather, which is no easy feat in Denmark, if you’re familiar with a typical Danish summer!

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First MHI Vestas 8MW turbine installed

By Jens Frederik Hansen, CEO, A2SEA

On September 8, SEA INSTALLER successfully installed the first of the MHI Vestas V164-8 MW turbines – the largest offshore wind turbines ever sold for commercial operation – at the Burbo Bank Extension project. The project will add round 258 MW of capacity and stretches over 40 square kilometres.

Installing these turbines is nothing short of fantastic, and we are very pleased to work with MHI Vestas again. The preparation for the project was smooth and professional and the whole experience to date has been very positive. We look forward to installing more of these enormous turbines during the rest of this project and in others to come.

Turbine Installation and the Levelised Cost of Energy: Taller and heavier

By Hans Peter Johannsen, Vice President, Projects.

This is the second article in our series about reducing the LCoE in the offshore wind industry through optimising turbine loading, transport and installation.

These days, A2SEA is as busy as ever, working through a pipeline of turbine installation projects that shows no sign of slowing down. Such healthy demand is a blessing, of course, but we’re equally lucky in that the purpose-built vessels SEA CHALLENGER and SEA INSTALLER were initially designed to handle not just the installation of turbines, but foundations as well. Why is that so lucky? It’s all about how much they can handle.

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Turbine Installation and Cost Reduction: Handling Risk

By Hans Peter Johannsen, Vice President, Projects.

This is the first post in a series about reducing the LCoE in the offshore wind industry through optimising turbine loading, transport and installation.

In offshore wind, few things dominate industry conversations as much as reducing the levelised cost of energy (LCoE). And certainly, with many years spent working to optimise equipment, procedures and safety, turbine installation contractors such as A2SEA have been able to become highly efficient, bringing the costs of installation down within the installer’s scope of control. In a series of articles, we’ll be discussing the steps we’re taking to achieve even greater efficiencies. Continue reading →

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Ensuring Supplier Safety via Best Practices – Part 1

Ensuring supplier safety via best practise

By Kirsten Bank Christensen, Vice President, HSEQ, A2SEA

Mobilisation projects are a valuable opportunity for cooperatively improving site safety with many suppliers. A2SEA’s ZERO HARM Mobilisation initiative benefits more than 30 suppliers annually. It calls for projects to achieve zero Lost Time Injuries with Life Changing Effects, despite many challenges. Continue reading →

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Time to rethink and renew

By Jonathan Winch

The supplier landscape in offshore wind has always been in a state of constant change. Over one and a half decades, it has developed enormously in capabilities and capacity. New players have flowed into the market, specialising in aspects such as surveying, cable laying, foundation installation or component transport – and a few have achieved significant size, or been acquired by larger companies in adjacent businesses.

Today, the most well-established players, of which A2SEA is one, have amassed lengthy track records and rich experience of many different aspects of the industry. It is now time to rethink and renew those established business models to handle the challenges of the next stage of offshore wind construction. Continue reading →

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Making the most of local content

By Jens Nielsen, Director, Procurement, A2SEA A/S

For foreign-based companies, doing business in the UK offshore wind industry requires a convincing demonstration of commitment to using local skills and infrastructure. And it’s probably fair to say that, for many, hiring locally based workers and setting up supply contracts with the local business community is viewed as a necessary, but not strictly desirable, activity. In reality, they would rather do the job with as many of their own, tried-and-proven resources as possible.

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