„Wind Lift I“ has installed 80 five megawatt wind turbines in the North Sea with the help of HATLAPA.
The development of the wind turbine industry has given HATLAPA an opportunity to spread their wings. The offshore business is developing into an ever more important division for the company. Now the company that supplies equipment to the shipping industry is supplying deck machinery to one of the most modern ships for the building-up of wind turbines out at sea. The company, Bard Engineering, has ordered four Mooring Winches, which will help the special installation ship „Wind Lift I “ develop an 80 windmill wind farm 90 kilometres northwest from Borkum.
This order promises to be the beginning of additional orders in the near future as the Bard group, who are due to complete their first 400 Megawatt Project by the end of 2010, is planning additional wind parks with a total of 350 windmills located in the German Bay and off the Dutch coast in the next few years.
The support vessel “Wind Lift 1” operates like a multi functional working platform. In high seas it is able to raise itself onto its four legs, 72 m long, up to 10 m above the water surface. With the help of this 100 m long and 36 m wide platform it is able to erect the foundation of the wind turbines up to 90 m high with a weight of 1500 tones, securely fixed 30 meters deep in the seabed. Afterwards, the column and the housing with rotor will be mounted. It can still operate as a safe and effective working platform with waves up to 3 m high and a wind force 7. This 8000 tonnes special lifting vessel has accommodation for 50 people, and is currently being built in the PC Western Shipbuilding Yard by the Estonian Group BLRT.
HATLAPA has already delivered their order for deck machinery to them. It’s work in the future will be to ensure easy loading and unloading of the supply vessels that are bringing the various materials to the working platform, even when seas are stormy. The total brake power of the 4 winches is 520 tonnes. That’s sufficient even for heavy weather conditions. Each of the winches can be set up permanently up to 50 tonnes dynamic pull so that it can match the tides.
At low-tide the rope automatically slackens and at high tide it pulls itself taught again, so that the landing ship is held firmly by the tow-line at all times.
This order for an offshore wind park is by no means new ground for HATLAPA. A few years ago they manufactured eight work hoists with a total traction power of 25 to 75 tons, especially for 2 Danish special ships, with whose assistance wind turbines were installed amongst others near Esbjerg.
Before commission of “Wind Lift 1” the engineers from HATLAPA will commission the Deck machinery.