Siemens AG has signed a 3-year charter for a new jack-up vessel to be used for service and maintenance operations at more than 1200 offshore wind turbines across northern Europe.
The Wind Server jackup (pictured at right) is currently under construction at Nordic Yards in Wismar, Germany, and is scheduled to begin operations with Siemens offshore wind projects in 2016.
The 80m x 32m jackup is being built as a wind turbine service vessel for Denmark's DBB Jack-Up Services. The four 72m long steel legs, each weighing 430 tons, have a diameter of 3.7m.
During the past eight days, four huge steel pipes, which were transported to the Wismar shipyard by sea from Cuxhaven, were vertically raised and installed with a giant lattice boom crane. The yard also used the floating crane ‘Enak,’ which helped guide the legs into position. The raising and installation took two days per leg.
The Wind Server will be able to operate in water depths to 45m.
