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Offshore wind energy gets busy on the Humber

By Andy Reay, A2SEA Regional Manager for the UK

The Humber may not be that long as rivers go (just 59 kilometres from one end to the other), but its lack of length isn’t about to stop it being one of the busiest spots in offshore wind energy next year. In fact, the area will be home to both operations & maintenance projects, as well as considerably more offshore construction, too.

Actually, the Humber isn’t a river at all. Situated on the east coast of northern England and flowing into the North Sea, it’s a tidal estuary formed where the River Trent and the River Ouse meet each other. In 2017, for the first time, A2SEA will be bringing two jack-up vessels to the area, kicking off two new projects that will see components being loaded out from Siemens’ new £160 million turbine blade manufacturing, project construction, assembly and service facility at Green Port Hull.

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Turbine installation and the levelised cost of energy: Bigger vessel payloads

By Hans Peter Johannsen, Vice President, Projects.

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

A2SEA’s internal data supports wider industry observations that the cost of turbine installation per installed MW is, in fact, coming down. From our perspective (and remembering that turbine installation is a minor part of an wind farm’s overall development), there are gains to be made whenever we can load more megawatts at a time onto our vessels. This ability is strongly assisted by the increasing amount of power generated by larger turbines such as the MHI Vestas 8 MW. But that’s far from the full story.

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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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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 →