Starting shot fired for work on RWE’s first own offshore installation ship (Germany)

After successful completion of the detailed planning, construction has begun of RWE’s first own offshore installation ship with today’s steel cutting ceremony at the Korean shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd.

The first steel sections of the 100 metre long and 40 metre wide ship were cut to size under the eyes of Paul Coffey, CCO of RWE Innogy. On completion next year, it will be the first of its kind that can transport up to four offshore wind turbines of the multi-megawatt class at the same time and erect them in water depths of more than 40 metres. The installation ship is intended for the construction of the German offshore wind farm “Nordsee Ost”.

“The steel cutting ceremony today represents a huge step forward for RWE and our plans to construct some of the largest offshore wind parks in the world”, said Paul Coffey during the today’s steel cutting ceremony.

RWE Innogy had already placed the order for construction of two identical offshore installation ships with the Korean shipyard at the end of last year. The contract value for each of these so-called “Jack-up Platforms” is around EUR 100 million. Completion of the first platform is planned for the autumn of 2011. From then on, the installation ship will be operated from its home port of Bremerhaven in the construction of the “Nordsee Ost” wind farm and begin placing the first foundations in the German Bight. The installation ship will set sail with two jacket foundations every week. Later it will take over the transport and installation of a total of 48 wind turbines of the 6-megawatt class. Full completion of the “Nordsee Ost” wind farm is planned for 2013. From then on, the wind power plant with installed power of 295 megawatts will supply the equivalent of 295,000 homes in Germany with electricity every year.

Besides the “Nordsee Ost” wind farm, RWE Innogy is developing the offshore wind farm “Innogy Nordsee 1” in German territorial waters. At around 960 megawatts (MW) of installed power, this will be the biggest offshore wind farm planned off the German coast. It will be built in an area of 150 square kilometres some 40 kilometres to the north of the North Sea island of Juist.

Off the north coast of Wales, RWE Innogy is already operating the offshore wind farms North Hoyle (60 MW) and Rhyl Flats (90 MW). The decision was recently taken to build a third wind power plant off the coat of Wales, Gwynt y Môr (576 MW). The second, identical, installation ship will be used to build that farm. In addition, the company presently has a 50 percent stake in the construction of the 504 MW wind farm Greater Gabbard off the southeast coast of England. Alone or with partners, RWE Innogy is presently developing further major projects in the UK, such as Triton Knoll (1,200 MW), Atlantic Array (1,500 MW), Galloper (500 MW) and Dogger Bank (around 9,000 MW). In Belgium, the company is also involved in the Thornton Bank wind farm, which in its first stage (30 MW) is already in commercial operation, and is also developing the offshore wind project Tromp Binnen (300 MW) in the Netherlands.

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Source: rwe, September 09, 2010;