A world leader in offshore wind installation and service solutions, A2SEA A/S is dedicated to providing the wind industry with safer, sustainable, and more cost-efficient operations. We spoke to Kaj Lindvig, Senior Advisor.
PES: Welcome to the magazine. Before we get on to the main issues of the day, would you like to introduce your company and explain your role within the wind industry?
Kaj Lindvig: A2SEA started in 2000 by exploring new methods to efficiently transport and install wind turbines offshore by cutting the overall time per installed turbine in half, together with improving safety in regards to jack up rigs used before.
PES: As a company that’s installed most of Europe’s offshore turbines, what’s your on-the-ground assessment of the state of the market at the moment?
KL: The last five or six years have been recognised by the industry through improving, expanding wealthy business relationships for most companies involved in offshore wind installations, so for A2SEA.
As by now, we do see quite some grey clouds in the sky. The UK market’s rounds 2.5 and 3 will not materialise at the expected timeframe and seem to be delayed by at least two to three years – expected to start in 2016, but the majority will not really start installation before 2017/18. On top of this, the German market is a bit disappointing in 2014/15 mainly due to the delays to get the grid connections ready for the developers and utilities to install and connect their turbines.
On the positive side, we see that many new purpose-built vessels arriving to the industry in the North European waters while turbines are getting larger, more efficient and run on higher availability. Another upside is the fact that actual wind resources seem to be on the higher end, adding 10-15% more full load hours to the turbine clock as previously expected.
PES: Can you tell us a little about your fleet and explain how it is suited to the specific challenges of the offshore industry?
KL: A2SEA has been pioneering the industry and was the first company to use converted, purpose-built vessels. Today our fleet consists of the first two semi-jack-ups which have been converted and upgraded a few times with longer support/jacking legs and larger cranes. The two jack-ups built in 2007 and 2008 are still reliable, good ‘work-horses’ for A2SEA and are installing both foundations and turbines on several of the most well known offshore wind projects being built between 2007 and 2013.
The first unit of second generation type offshore installation vessels arrived in Denmark in December 2012 (SEA INSTALLER) and the second of the same kind will arrive during spring 2014 (NB002).
These six vessels will build the core part of A2SEA’s installation capacity until 2015, where we expect to welcome the first floating installation vessel – in this case in cooperation with our partner, Teekay Shipping A/S of Norway. The total fleet will at this time consist of six or seven vessels of different sizes and vessels will have their competitive advantage at different water depths, with different met-ocean conditions and sizes of components to install.
We trust to have the right and best flexible fleet to continue being an attractive partner for the future installations in offshore wind – 80% of the market to be covered by these vessels.
PES: We note that you were expecting delivery of four new crew boats at the end of 2012. What will these add to your fleet?
