The fact that our SOV WINDEA Jules Verne is now put into service in the Merkur offshore wind farm is not our only contribution to this offshore project. Within our WINDEA family we are involved as follows:
Northern Helicopter GmbH (NHC Northern Helicopter), Emden, is set to take up the offshore rescue service for the Veja Mate, Nordergrund, Butendiek and BARD Offshore 1 offshore wind farms in the North Sea's German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on 1 August 2020. The contract package now signed covers the air rescue service for a total of 245 offshore wind turbines, as well as coordination via the emergency control centre. The wind farms are located in the German Bight, in some cases more than 100 kilometres off the mainland.
When EMO was founded ten years ago as a subsidiary of the AG "EMS" Group in Emden, Managing Director Knut Gerdes was already looking back on several years of experience. It all began with the first wind farm projects in the North Sea. Knut Gerdes was fascinated by the topic and he was given the assignment to deal with the new field of activity. Gerdes remembers: "At that time, discussions were held with the pioneers of this industry, which mostly consisted of small project development offices".
This week the installation ship left the terminal for the last time to erect the remaining two towers in the Trianel wind farm Borkum II. It was the eleventh offshore project that Buss Energy Group has successfully completed at Buss Terminal Eemshaven. The commissioning of the 32 wind turbines with a capacity of around 200 megawatts is scheduled for mid 2020. The second expansion stage of the first purely municipal offshore wind farm is located 45 kilometres north of Borkum. The planned operating period is 25 years.
EMO signed a three-year charter contract for the Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV) MS “WINDEA three” with Trianel until the end of 2022. This special-purpose vessel, developed for operation in offshore wind farms is to succeed its sister ship, the MS “WINDEA one”, which has been in operation for Trianel since 2013. It is now to be used from Borkum for another client. Since February of this year, the MS “WINDEA three” has transported service technicians and freight to the offshore wind farm “Tiranel Windpark Borkum”, 45 km north of the island of Borkum.
WP Systems GmbH has tested a modified version of its working platform SYSTEM terra in order to use it on all existing onshore turbines. This has now been successfully demonstrated during a test run on one of the currently largest onshore wind turbines, the V150 (4.2 MW) from Vestas. The working platform has mastered the farthest distance of 17.5 meters between the tower and the tip of the rotor blade.
WINDEA Offshore, together with its partner WP Systems, has taken another step towards establishing the WINDEA Blade Service concept. Last week the operation of the working platform SYSTEM terra was successfully demonstrated at a Siemens SWT-3.6 offshore test turbine in the German district of Nordfriesland. The platform, which is used for maintenance and repair of rotor blades, has thus proven its functionality for the first time on an offshore wind turbine. About 30 representatives of different manufacturers as well as of some of the largest operators of offshore wind farms followed the invitation of WINDEA Offshore and took an active part in the demonstration.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has taken the opportunity to visit Buss Terminal Eemshaven during his tour of the province of Groningen. After talking to representatives of Groningen Seaports, the local port authority, he got an impression of the terminal in personal conversations. Here the individual components for offshore wind farms are stored, pre-assembled and shipped.
Buss Terminal in Eemshaven has been awarded with another project contract: Start May Eemshaven will serve as base port for installing foundation structures of the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm. Approximately 140,000 m² of the 250,000 m² of the heavy cargo terminal will be occupied.
We are proud to announce the next Service Operation Vessel of Bernhard Schulte, designed and built by Ulstein, will carry the name „WINDEA JULES VERNE“.
