Boskalis’ semi-submersible heavy transport vessel Mighty Servant 1 is transporting the 23,000-tonne DolWin Epsilon platform.
The high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter platform will transmit wind-generated electricity from several offshore wind farms to the onshore grid. Measuring 73 m wide, the platform is almost one-and-a-half times as wide as the deck of the Mighty Servant 1.
To accommodate the load, the deck was extended with four outriggers – two on each side of the vessel – to make the vessel wider at crucial points to carry TenneT’s 82 m-long and 84 m-high platform.
The 900 MW offshore platform left Seatrium’s shipyard in Singapore on October 12. After three years of construction, Might Servant 1 will transport it 13,000 nautical miles around the Cape of Good Hope and is expected at the Aibel shipyard in Haugesund (Norway) in December.
Once in Norway, Aibel will still carry out final technical works. Hitachi Energy as Aibel’s subcontractor and supplier for the HVDC technology, will install the converter and transformers. Next summer, the platform will be transported self-floating and installed at its final destination in the German part of the North Sea.
