A2Sea prepares for major turbine project

Offshore construction company A2Sea has been awarded the contract to erect Siemens wind turbines at the Greater Gabbard project off the UK east coast.

The project will include 140 turbines with a combined capacity of 504 MW. A2Sea heavy lift jack-up barge Sea Jack will commence operations in spring 2010. In preparation it performed a series of jacking trials at the site to verify seabed conditions. A2Sea will operate from the new Great Yarmouth East Port which is under construction. It was awarded the contract by Fluor Limited.

Sea Jack has a Manitowoc M1200 ringer crane, with a 1,300 tonne capacity at 18 m radius. It is capable of loading three complete 3.6 MW turbines at a time. This capability is important, said A2Sea, given the distance from the logistics harbour to the wind farm site.

"We are extremely pleased to have reached agreement with Fluor for A2Sea to work on the Greater Gabbard project. The site presents some interesting challenges for vessel operations which will provide our experienced project team with the opportunity to really demonstrate the know-how that has been built up in A2Sea on a wide range of projects," said Jens Frederik Hansen, A2Sea CEO.