Fred Olsen Windcarrier’s jack-up installation vessel Brave Tern has been successfully fitted out in Esbjerg, Denmark, for its journey to the Block Island Windfarm off the coast of Rhode Island in the United States. The preparation of the vessel included the welding of large steel structures on deck to elevate and support the nacelles for the voyage across the Atlantic. Brave Tern is now en route to St. Nazaire, France, where the five GE Renewable Energy Haliade 150 6 MW nacelles will be loaded onto the vessel. After loading, it will travel across the Atlantic to install the turbines at Block Island before returning to Europe.
As part of the preparations, ZephIR 300 wind lidar has been installed on the vessel in order to complement the onboard technology with delivery of real-time accurate wind information to the crew. The lidar delivers real-time wind information, remotely from 10 metres above installed location up to 200 metres. It can be used in all stages of wind farm development and other meteorological applications such as offshore platforms (both fixed and floating). The ZephIR 300 will be used through the construction phase of the Block Island Wind Farm to assist crane operations and safe lifting.
ZephIR 300’s enhanced assessment of suitable weather windows will enable crane operations to be optimised, leading to more efficient and cost-effective offshore construction operations. The data, presented as a wind shear profile including wind speed and wind direction is directly accessible via a User Interface from a display screen accessible to the client. The lidar provides hub height and turbine mounted accurate wind measurement, for wind energy and meteorological applications.
ZephIR Lidar has been providing wind resource assessments since 2011. , ZephIR 300 and ZephIR DM are industry leading wind lidar products that provide accurate wind measurements in both onshore and offshore applications. The lidars have more than 10 million hours of operation in the field with over 1000 deployments. ZephIR has achieved many world firsts, including upwind measurements from a turbine nacelle, turbine wake studies, offshore deployments of both fixed and floating wind lidar, an industry-accepted validation process, re-financing and re-powering a wind farm, technology accuracy demonstration in a wind tunnel and total project financing.
Brave Tern is a self-elevating and self-propelled jack-up vessel with a large open deck that can accommodate different types of operations. Like its sister vessel Bold Tern, it is equipped with 800-tonne wrap-around-the-leg offshore rated cranes designed by Gusto MSC, as well as robust, continuous-type hydraulic jacking systems. In addition, each vessel has a DP2-class type dynamic positioning system and is fitted with a Voith Schneider propulsion system enabling secure and accurate positioning capabilities. The vessels also provide accommodation facilities for up to 80 people and have helidecks for transfers during offshore operations.
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