A2SEA, which says it has installed 60 percent of the world’s offshore wind turbines, is currently owned by DONG Energy. On June 29th 2010 it was announced that Siemens will become a 49 percent shareholder in A2SEA. Closing of this agreement is expected in the fourth quarter 2010.
To be named Sea Installer, the new vessel is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2012 and will be a jack-up vessel optimized to operate in water depths of up to 45 meters. It will therefore be well-suited for the installation of upcoming offshore wind energy projects in the U.K. as well as in other offshore wind power markets.
"An increasing number of offshore wind energy projects in the near future will lead to even higher demands for installation vessels than already seen today," says A2SEA CEO Jens Frederik Hansen. "With a new state of the art vessel, A2SEA will be able to meet our customers’ future demands and hold on to our position as the leading supplier of installation services.
"Bringing down the installation time is an important factor in the ongoing work of industrializing the process to bring down the cost of constructing offshore wind farms," continued Mr. Hansen. "It has therefore been important to design Sea Installer to be able to carry eight to ten wind turbines at a time which is significantly more than the capacity of the vessels which are currently available in the market."
Sea Installer:
Length: 132 m
Breadth: 39 m
Draft: 5.8 m
Speed: 12 knots
Crane capacity: 900 tons
Loading area: 3200 sq.m.
Loading capacity: 5000 tons
Able to jack-up at water depths of up to 45 m
Capable of carrying eight to ten offshore wind turbines (towers, nacelles and blades)
Able to carry up 60 people (crew and installation personnel)
