OFFSHORE LIFTING
in ever deeper sea. A result of this means
that Liebherr has had to develop a series of
cranes with subsea lifting capabilities down
to 3,400 metres.”
The RL-K 7500 has a lifting capacity of
up to 260 tonnes and is fitted with an active
heave compensation system, which senses
and predicts the vessel’s motion to help
compensate for it movement.
Offshore energy
Another area that is undergoing change is
the offshore wind industry. Offshore wind
farms are continuing to increase in size
and capacity. A2Sea, a specialist in the
offshore wind farm installation sector, has
experienced this trend and over the past ten
years the company has installed more than
800 offshore wind turbines and
400 foundations.
To help keep up with demand, A2Sea
installed a CC 2800-1 lattice boom crane
on
Sea Power
, a self-propelled crane vessel
with four jack-up legs. The CC 2800-1 has
a lift capacity of 600 tonnes at 10 m radius.
It replaces a Terex CC 2500-1 that was
originally fitted on the vessel.
INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
■
OCTOBER 2013
58
OFFSHORE PLATFORMS
SeaRenergy Offshore, a company that specializes in the transportation and installation of
components for offshore wind farms, has carried out the installation of the new generation of
offshore platforms.
For the project SeaRenergy Offshore installed a DC converter platform HelWin 1, which is due
to be connected to Nordsee Ost and Meerwind wind farms.
The first stage of the project included the installation of the subsea structure of HelWin 1,
which was installed at a water depth of 23 metres about 85 km from the northwest of the
island of Helgoland. For the second stage of the project the topside, which is one of the largest
platforms to ever be installed in the North Sea, was towed from Wismar, Germany to the
offshore site. The topside weighs
12,000 tonnes and measures 75 x 27 x 50 m.
It is used to convert alternating current (AC)
power generated by the wind farms to direct
current (DC).
Once at the site four tugboats were used to
position the topside above its subsea structure
base, a company spokesperson said. It was
then lifted to its final position 22 metres above
sea level. A second platform, BorWin 2, is
due to be installed later this year on behalf of
Siemens, a company spokesperson adds.
The DC converter
platform HelWin 1
To improve payload capacity, the
superlift mast can be connected directly
to the floor of the cargo bay to remove
the need for superlift ballast. A2Sea crane
superintendent, Jens Niemann, explains,
“A key requirement was to keep the weight
of the crane as low as possible and use the
vessel as ballast. This required considerable
A2Sea’s
vessel
Sea
Power
A Terex CC 2800-1 lattice boom
crane fitted on the Sea Power
ALE uses its Mega Jack system to jack up the
44,000 tonne topside of the Arkutun Dagi
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