PES talks with Helder Cavalheiro, Manager of the Wind Division of Sarens Projects, about their work in the on and offshore wind markets…
PES: Welcome to PES Wind magazine. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. Would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of your organization and how you currently serve the wind industry?
Helder Cavalheiro: The Sarens Group is traditionally a Heavy Lift Group comprising of 4400 employees spread across the globe. Due to the market size and the industry sector, our group organisation is based on sphere and the sector in question. Although in absolute terms, we lead in the global market, when it comes to heavy lifting, we prefer not to always call ourselves the leader; we strive daily on all fronts to remain the market reference. We are the type of company that prides itself on having devised simple and engineeringly elegant solutions to complex projects over the past 60 years. Regarding the wind industry, Sarens services both the onshore and offshore markets. For the onshore market, Sarens installs globally around 850 WTGs on a yearly basis. For offshore, mainly on-port zones, Sarens provides different equipment to unload and move the heavy and oversized WTG components.
PES: In 2008, Sarens’ built the first offshore wind farm of 5MW turbines in the world. How has the industry and the role of Sarens progressed since that time?
HC: In fact, the participation of Sarens in the wind industry started even before – during the installation phase, both offshore and onshore, with cranes and installation crew. Nevertheless, 2008 was to Sarens an important milestone when the Group engineered a lifting solution with a traditional pedestal crawler crane on a Jack Up Barge to install the 5MW turbines. The nacelles weighed 317t each and at the time they were amongst the heaviest in the world. Since then, the industry has grown dramatically. Quantities and sizes of Offshore Wind Turbines have increased enormously. Five years ago, the MonoPile (MP) foundation had a 66% market share, in 2015 this increased to 97%.Today, the heaviest MP weighs 1100t, which is soon to become 1300t and it is still expected get even heavier.
Over the years Sarens has had an average of 6-7 cranes operating on board Jack Up Barges for Offshore, wind turbine installation as well for oil and gas or civil construction projects.
