March 27 - A2SEA has signed a contract worth USD 155 million with Chinese company, COSCO Shipyard Group Co Ltd, for the construction of a new jack-up vessel designed for offshore wind turbine installation. It is expected to be delivered in 2014, writes Ch
The vessel will be designed to operate at water depths of up to 45 m, making it suitable for installing upcoming offshore wind projects in Northern Europe. It will also be an important step towards industrialisation of the offshore wind industry to lower energy costs.
In 2010 A2SEA also signed a contract for a new vessel, Sea Installer (pictured below), for offshore installa- tion. The new agreement with COSCO Shipyard Group Co., Ltd. is for a vessel identical to Sea Installer, but extended by a longer crane able to lift up to 900 tonnes, which is 100 tonnes more than Sea Installer.
"With the fast growing offshore market in the Northern Europe, we can already today see that the demand for vessels for installation will grow dramatically. With the new installation vessel, we are well prepared to meet that demand and strengthen our position as supplier of installation services," stated Jens Frederik Hansen, CEO of A2SEA.
He added "It is very important to us that we are able to meet the demand of tomorrow, when the offshore parks along with the size of the turbines are growing in size. With the new vessel we take a big step continuing to shorten the time of installation and thereby bringing down the cost of energy from offshore wind energy."
