ESVAGT and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind enter ten year contract for Service Operation Vessel

ESVAGT is building a new Service Operation Vessel (SOV) for MHI Vestas Offshore Wind to service the offshore wind farm off the Belgian coast.

A new ten year contract between ESVAGT and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind for servicing the 165 MW large offshore wind farm cements ESVAGT’s status as leading SOV operator in the offshore wind energy market.

The Nobelwind project lies 50 kilometres off the Belgian coast and servicing the farm – as well as the existing wind farm, the Belwind 1 – requires a constant presence of technicians. This is now possible thanks to the specially built SOV, which ESVAGT has won the contract to supply.

Norwegian Havyard Design has been given the task of designing the specially built SOV; a unique type of vessel for a unique service concept that ESVAGT has developed in cooperation with MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and Havyard Design.

Both the vessel and the servicing concept are based on many years of experience in servicing offshore wind farms far from shore. ESVAGT’s SOV concept and Havyard’s design, in the form of the ’Esvagt Froude’ and the ’Esvagt Faraday’, successfully operate in the offshore wind farms, the Baltic II and Butendiek for Siemens Wind Power, and ESVAGT has been servicing technicians for MHI Vestas Offshore Wind for the last five years in the offshore wind farm, the Belwind 1. This new contract is an extension of an already good partnership.

“We have been enormously satisfied with the quality of the work performed by the ’Esvagt Supporter’ over the last five years,” says MHI Vestas Offshore Wind’s Senior Director, Asger Pedersen:

“It was therefore an entirely natural decision to continue our good working relationship. The new, specially built vessel is designed to offer good flexibility to the teams supporting the offshore wind farms and we are very much looking forward to seeing the new vessel at work from 2017,” he says.

Managing Director for ESVAGT, Søren Nørgaard Thomsen, is equally enthusiastic:

“We are very pleased that MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has chosen to sign another contract with ESVAGT. MHI Vestas Offshore Wind believed in ESVAGT’s concept from the very beginning, and over the last five years, we have worked together very closely to continually develop both efficiency and safety. We see the new contract as a clear sign that ESVAGT’s concept has been a success,” says Søren Nørgaard Thomsen.

The 'Esvagt Supporter' has been servicing MHI Vestas Offshore Wind technicians for the past five years at the offshore wind farm, the Belwind 1 using Safe Transfer Boats. The positive experiences gained here means that the SOV for MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will be the first purpose-built ESVAGT SOV without a gyro compensated gangway for transferring personnel.

Facts

The new, specially designed SOV will be 58.5 metres long and 16.6 metres wide and have single cabins for up to 22 technicians. The vessel will be equipped with ESVAGT’s unique safe transfer boats (ESVAGT STB 12 and STB7) for transferring technicians, tools and spare parts to the turbines.

The hull is being built at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey and will be completed at the Havyards shipyard in Norway. The vessel will enter into charter during the second half of 2017.