As of May 9, 2018, Ocean Breeze Energy (OBE) deployed a new walk to work support vessel, the Acta Auriga, in the BARD Offshore 1 wind farm.
Acta Marine’s vessel is a completely new concept by Acta Marine and the Norwegian shipyard Ulstein and is optimally designed to meet the requirements of service and logistics for offshore wind farms. Acta Auriga will further boost the high-performance service and maintenance concept of BARD Offshore 1. The vessel is used in particular by OBE’s experienced service partner, the Bremen and Emden-based company REETEC. REETEC carries out the maintenance of Germany’s first commercial offshore wind farm’s 80 turbines.
„The use of Acta Auriga is an important element in further optimizing our logistics concept for BARD Offshore 1. The vessel, which was specially developed for use in offshore wind farms, is expected to increase the productivity of offshore personnel by around 25 percent, because it will enable our teams to operate in a much more flexible manner with even shorter waiting times than before," said Jean Huby, Managing Director for Technology at OBE. „The new vessel will thus contribute to ensuring and further increasing the excellent technical availability rate of our wind turbines, which currently stands at around 95 percent.”
Since 2015, OBE has mainly been using support vessels for maintenance work in the offshore wind farm BARD Offshore 1. This proven logistics concept guarantees the safe deployment of service technicians on the wind turbines even in heavy waves, which is particularly important in the often challenging weather conditions in the German Bight. Both the SMST 3D-compensated gangway and 3D-crane as well as the special Ulstein X-BOW and X-STERN hull design allow Acta Auriga to safely transfer cargo and personnel at significant wave heights of up to three metres. In addition, Acta Auriga’s state of the art hotel facilities to accommodate up to 120 persons takes staying offshore for the technicians to a whole new level.
"The increasing offshore capacity in the North Sea is also creating a need for innovation in the shipbuilding industry for the offshore sector. The shipping industry is thus helping to reduce the operating costs for offshore wind farms and ultimately the electricity generation costs for offshore wind energy. A positive cycle for our future-oriented industry", adds Jens Hagen, Commercial Managing Director at OBE. "With the Acta Auriga, we are once again using state-of-the-art technology for our pioneering project Bard Offshore 1."
OBE has chartered the Acta Auriga from Acta Marine for two years. “Providing our walk to work vessel services to support OBE’s operations and maintenance in BARD Offshore 1 with our new innovative vessel Acta Auriga aligns with our commitment to enhance offshore service logistics for on-site maintenance in challenging weather and sea conditions” said Rob Boer, Managing Director at Acta Marine. “We are extremely pleased that the experienced OBE team has chosen our concept as the next step in its O&M strategy to ensure the highest availability of the turbines.”
About BARD Offshore 1:
BARD Offshore 1 is the first commercial offshore wind farm in Germany. 80 wind energy generators of the 5 megawatt class reach a nominal capacity of 400 megawatt – this equals the energy consumption of more than 400,000 households. The offshore wind farm is located approximately 100 km north of the isle of Borkum in the German North Sea and comprises an area of approximately 59 square kilometres.
Ocean Breeze Energy GmbH & Co. KG, owner and operator of the windfarm, BARD Offshore 1, is 100% indirectly held by HypoVereinsbank.
Source: Acta Marine