U.S.-based Crowley and Danish shipping company ESVAGT announced plans to directly bolster purpose-built, Jones Act vessel availability in support of the emerging offshore wind energy market through a joint venture.
ESVAGT
The partnership will bring together two leading maritime solutions providers to serve the emerging industry. Consistent with the requirements of the U.S. Jones Act, Crowley will own and operate the vessels with its U.S. mariners, while Crowley and ESVAGT will share in the economics of the venture.
ESVAGT is a service operation vessel (SOV) operator in Europe and will provide technical advice on the design, construction and operation of these vessels based solidly on their past performance with this specific vessel type.
The venture will work to develop a best-in-class design and deliver its first wind-dedicated, U.S flag SOV. The companies, which share a history of safe and reliable solutions within their respective markets, are now positioning to advance wind farm development by directly addressing shortages of compliant vessel capacity.
Earlier this year, Crowley formed its New Energy division strategically focused on diverse services supporting the emerging energy sectors in the United States and adjacent regions. Within the offshore wind industry, Crowley’s New Energy expansion, including this latest partnership, advances the company as a total lifecycle service provider. Service offerings include transportation of turbines during construction, industry-specific support vessels, shoreside “terminaling” and supply chain services from farm construction through decommissioning.
“This partnership will marry Crowley’s transferable engineering, vessel operations, project management and logistics experience in the U.S. offshore markets to ESVAGT’s global SOV design and operations capabilities. This will enable the continued growth of sustainable, greener energy solutions by directly addressing the offshore wind service capacity challenge,” said Tom Crowley, chairman and CEO. “Our organizations share cultures that are based around the core values of safety, integrity and high performance. We look forward to a long and successful partnership in support of North America’s new energy solutions.”
ESVAGT pioneered the SOV concept in Europe more than a decade ago and today provides of SOV services to the European Offshore Wind Operation and Maintenance markets. ESVAGT has experience in safely transferring people to offshore wind farm installations from a fleet of vessels operated by qualified crew: annually, ESVAGT safely transfers more than 115,000 personnel members from SOV to offshore wind farm installations.
“ESVAGT looks forward to further cementing its position as an offshore wind market leader by entering the U.S. offshore wind market with Crowley, a strong partner with an established track record of delivering solutions to its customers,” said Peter Lytzen, ESVAGT CEO. “ESVAGT’s experience in Europe will help deliver a seamless operation in the United States and we also appreciate the opportunity to invest in the construction of these vessels in compliance with the Jones Act.”
News item from Crowley
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Looking at the post about designing a barge, what about having the “Living Quarters” on a floating houseboat of sorts, so that should something happen to the main barge, the living quarters would float off the top of the barge and become a lifeboat? Say a leg breaks, and the barge tips sideways while 1/2 of the crew is sleeping. The other leg becomes overloaded, and folds under the pressure of holding up 1/3 of the barge weight by itself. Or a wave lifted the barge off it’s legs and sets it down sideways, and the crew is sleeping in it’s quarters. If the crew section can automatically detach, and float, it would offer a great place to survive, with the propane stove still working, perhaps LP gas powered lights, and such.
While you might get thrown out of your bunk when the barge breaks, at least the living quarters will not sink, or will float for a while.
Many modern cruise ships use a monopod style to install the motor to drive the ship on a rotatable disk under the ship. This could be used to power the jack up barges that will install the hundreds of wind turbines around the world. Place one or more on each end of the barge to power the barge, and it will be able to stay stable even in a huge cross current while getting ready to be jacked out of the water.
I can envision a jack up barge with a opening in the front section of deck that is say 20′ square and this is where the monopile would be lowered to the sea floor, with the working platform around the worksite. I can see a pair of 12″ diameter pipes going from one end of the barge to the area where the monopile will be installed, and a carriage installed on those pipes to hold the bottom of the monopile or tower section while it is being lifted by the crane and keep it steady while it ie lowered into the water. The carriage would look like a roller coaster car, with wheels above and below the track, so it can not be pulled off. It might have a 72 volt motor and battery pack to power it forward and back on the tracks. 25 – 50 HP motors taken from a electric forklift to power the carriage back and forth along the tracks.
I think the first time a jack up barge fails, and tips over they will say “They must have 6 legs, and lifeboats that will self deploy when they hit the water line, not just sink with the barge, still well attached to the barge and held under water by it’s support system.” Check out what happened to the “Big D” barge while building the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Also they should have lifeboats on all 4 sides of the jack up barge. They might not be able to reach one side, or deploy should the barge sink in a awkward way. (when is a sinking vessel not awkward?).
Cranes with 2 jibs that can be set 10 feet to 40 feet apart, so that they can lift a load and adjust it while in the air! Two cables so that it can spread the load across the 50 meter long wings, and while lifting a turbine mechanical room into place, allow it to adjust side to side as they lower it into place on top of the monopile. I think it could handle higher wind loads as well. What about a canvas shield to go around the crane load, so that winds will not effect it nearly as much?