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NORTH SEA AGREEMENT

By Jens Frederik Hansen, CEO, A2SEA

Earlier this year, nine North Sea region countries signed an agreement aimed at building a more sustainable, secure and affordable energy supply through a much more ambitious level of cooperation. It appears there may be billions to be saved (according to European Commission studies) if we work together – and I’m certainly all for the idea. But what will the reality be? Can politicians, investors and the industry itself really deliver this potential upside by building electricity links, allowing more trading of energy and further integration of energy markets?

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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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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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