July 31 - Mammoet has assembled the first five test turbines for Statoil's Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, at the NorSea Group's Stordbase yard in Norway.
Located 25 km off the east coast of Scotland, Hywind Scotland Pilot Park will be the first floating offshore wind farm, claims Mammoet.
Mammoet was contracted by NorSea Group for the lifting and transport operations at the onshore facility in Stord.
"We were responsible for the engineering drawings and the transport drawings, and provided NorSea Group with advice on lifting strategies and planning, resulting in a smooth assembly," said Mammoet's project manager, Tom Braakman.
As HLPFI reported earlier this year, the turbines, once fully assembled, will measure 253 m in height and will have a total weight of 12,000 tons (10,886 tonnes).
Each turbine was transported to Stord as nine component pieces and was assembled using an LR 11000 crawler crane and 24 axle lines of self propelled modular transporters (SPMT).
Tom Rutgrink, director project sales Europe, added: "Initial estimates showed that the client would need a 1,350-ton (1,224.9-tonne) capacity crawler crane to lift the components. Based on our expertise we were able to come up with an approach that would only require a 1,100-ton (998-tonne) capacity crane, allowing us to do the job much more efficiently."
When the assembly and outfitting was completed, a crane vessel transported the 1,150-ton (1,043-tonne) turbines to the floating foundation in the fjord.
After the turbines have been installed on the foundations, which were shipped to the facility in May on board OHT's semi-submersible vessel Albatross, they will be towed across the North Sea to their final destination.
The Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, which is owned by Statoil (75 percent) and Masdar (25 percent), will stretch over approximately 4 sq km, at a water depth of 95-120 m, and is expected to be commissioned in late 2017.
A video of the project can be viewed here.
