Reducing costs for offshore wind generated electricity is one of the major challenges in the European energy market. The novelty about the jointly developed concept for reducing costs during installation, from the Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungs- GmbH & Co. KG and Wärtsilä is, that the tasks for transport and installation are separated, by which loading components onto the installation vessel, is carried out offshore at the building site.

The installation of the 80th turbine in the BARD Offshore 1 construction site this week, one month earlier than originally planned, marks the official completion of the installation process for the first commercial offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

At the beginning of the week, RWE Innogy has started laying the first inter array cable in the construction area of the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm. By mid-2014, 64 kilometers of cable will have connected the 48 wind turbines with the offshore transformer substation. The Dutch company Visser & Smit Marine Contracting (VSCM) is leading this work.

At the end of July, the „INNOVATION“ arrived at the Orange Blue Terminal in Eemshaven. This was not the first assignment at the Dutch offshore terminal for the modern heavy lift jack-up vessel from HGO InfraSea Solutions, which installs foundations at the Global Tech I wind park for HOCHTIEF Solutions. However, its premier jack-up occurred on July 31. The loading of the three tripod foundations, with a combined weight of 2,700 tons, for the Global Tech I wind park ran smoothly.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that the UK Government is doing everything in their power to convince Siemens to advance with its proposal for the Hull facility, reports the Hull Daily Mail.

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