Bernhard Schulte Offshore has held a naming ceremony for the first wind farm service vessel built by Ulstein Verft and chartered out to Siemens in Hamburg.
The vessel’s godmother Sophie Schulte named the vessel WINDEA LA COUR, a tribute to Poul la Cour, Danish meteorologist and wind turbine innovator.
Starting from summer the vessel will work at the 600MW Gemini wind farm in the Netherlands for Siemens Wind Power Service.
The vessel is the first of two SOVs built at Ulstein Verft in Norway, which Bernhard Schulte Offshore will deliver to Siemens.
“With the ULSTEIN SX175 the collaborative design team of Ulstein Design & Solutions, WINDEA, Bernhard Schulte Offshore and Siemens created a vessel which perfectly fits the needs of the offshore wind industry,” Matthias Müller, Managing Director of Bernhard Schulte Offshore, said.
“These SOVs are the first vessels with the new X-STERN hull shape. A vessel featuring the X-STERN can be positioned with the stern faced towards the weather instead only with the bow, leading to improved weather resilience, greater operability and reduced power and fuel consumption while on DP mode next to the wind turbine.”
The vessel functions as a platform for wind farm operations and maintenance support, technician accommodation and transport, and the provision of access to installations offshore.
“Siemens congratulates Bernhard Schulte on the christening of the WINDEA LA COUR and we are delighted to be the first to charter this innovative new service operations vessel as we begin service operations at the Gemini wind farm in the Dutch part of the North Sea,” said René Cornelis Wigmans, Head of Maritime and Aviation Solutions, Siemens Wind Power Service.
“As the global leader in offshore wind service and the first company to deploy purpose-built SOVs, Siemens is dedicated to the development of innovative offshore service logistics that support efforts to bring down the costs associated with wind energy. The features on the WINDEA LA COUR, such as the X-STERN hull, will help ensure our technicians have a safe and highly advanced accommodations and service vessel from which to base their offshore operations at Gemini.“