The walk-to-work (W2W) vessel Island Diligence has started working at the DanTysk and Sandbank offshore wind farms in Germany.
Under a contract Island Offshore recently signed with a joint venture company owned by Stadtwerke München and Vattenfall, Island Diligence is providing accommodation and transfer of technicians to the wind turbines at the two offshore wind farms in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The vessel is operating from the Port of Esbjerg.
Island Diligence started operations from the port in early May and will continue serving at the wind farms at least until the end of August, since the contract has been signed for four months, plus options.
Vattenfall opened a tender for a service operation vessel (SOV) for the two offshore wind farms in December 2020, seeking any DP2 vessel with a gangway that meets all technical, HS and EnSu employers requirements.
The developer said the vessel would be used for scheduled maintenance work during the spring and summer campaign of 2021, starting on 1 May, within a four-month contract with an option to extend three times by one month.
The 288 MW DanTysk offshore wind farm, located some 70 kilometres west of the island of Sylt, comprises 80 Siemens Gamesa 3.6 MW turbines that have been in operation since 2014.
Sandbank offshore wind farm has been in operation since 2017. The wind farm also has a 288 MW capacity and its 72 Siemens Gamesa 4 MW turbines are spinning some 90 kilometres west of Sylt.
At the beginning of last year, Island Offshore secured two offshore wind contracts for Island Diligence , under which the vessel was first deployed in the German Bight for walk-to-work operations at the Trianel Windpark Borkum II wind farm, and then in the Danish sector of the Baltic Sea for the same services at the Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm.