And what about the use of a Jack-up vessel for floating wind integration?

Installing the next generation of wind turbine on their floating foundations is going to be a challenge.

So far, the job has mainly been done by large crawler cranes in ports. But integrating 15MW+ wind turbine will mean lifting more than 600t nacelle above 180m height and a reach that will depend on the floating foundation geometry.  This is not any more doable by a single crawler crane.

The main crane operators have the ring cranes (or equivalent as they are not all sitting on a “ring”) that are well placed to do the job and this is the solution with the highest maturity. However, there are limited numbers of such units worldwide, their mobilization is quite expensive, and only few ports can accommodate them without significant civil works.

Also, when it comes to planning, which is the main cost driver of a large-scale project, the distance between the “Integration port”, ie the place where the wind turbine is assembled on the floating foundation, and the wind farm, is an important parameter.

What about the jack-up then? Can they play a role, replacing the onshore crane along quay side, or in shelter area with a feeder concept?

There are many interesting questions to address and confirm whether these scenarios are realistic, or maybe relevant for a given project:

• Cinematic of the various mobiles: JUV, feeder barge, floating foundations. How close they can be brought one to each other? What preparation can be done to save distance and time?
• Capacity to pick-up (from a quay or a floating feeder) and install directly on foundation? What are the restrictions when lifting from/to a floating unit?
• Capacity & Availability of the medium size JUVs that will soon be overtaken by the large new built on the bottom fixed market?
• Planning, cost estimates, maturity of the various options?

At NaRval Solutions, we tackle such questions by supporting developers and EPCIste in their logistic strategy. We handle your base case to screen different scenarios with the objective to optimize CAPEX expenses.

Are you interested in more information? Get in touch with Vincent Cazenave vincent.cazenave@narvalsolutions.fr, he will be very pleased to exchange on this topic with you.