Offshore marine engineering specialist GeoSea has been involved in the offshore wind industry since the early days and has played a role in some 40 wind farms to date. Bart de Poorter, General Manager of GeoSea, outlines how the company has evolved to serve the offshore wind sector and where he sees its role in the future.
During 2014, GeoSea was involved in the preparation and the construction of around nine offshore wind farm projects, including Westermost Rough (UK), Baltic 2 (Germany), Northwind (Belgium), Kentish Flats (UK) and Godewind (Germany).
Based in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, GeoSea has built a versatile, multipurpose fleet, which enables it to extend the operating window considerably and work on offshore wind projects throughout the year, rather than being reliant on the seasons. And the sector is undoubtedly an important activity for the company going forward as it continues to invest in new vessels and technology.
PES: Welcome back to the magazine. Would you mind bringing new readers up to speed with the company and how it serves the sector?
Bart de Poorter: DEME has been active in offshore wind for around 14 years, when it was involved in the construction of Samsˆ and then when it came to Utgrunden 1, we installed 10 foundations and turbines of 1.3MW, which were very large at the time! Later we developed and delivered Thornton Bank as a turnkey contract.
Typically, GeoSea would deliver only one project a year during this early stage of the offshore wind sector. Spring through to the autumn would be used for construction, and installation and preparations would take place in the winter.
This is the major difference today. We now have multiple offshore projects going on throughout the year. The winter season is no longer just about preparations and maintenance, we simply continue. Foundations and cables are often installed in summer and we carry out turbine installation and piling in the winter.
This is for several reasons. Firstly, the market is driving it; there have to be more farms built in one season and commercially we need to occupy vessels in summer and the winter to lower the costs to ultimately bring the levelised cost of energy down.
PES: And has the evolution of the vessels in GeoSea’s fleet has driven this ability to work all year round?
BP: Absolutely. For example, during one of our most recent projects for DONG’s Westermost Rough offshore wind farm, rather than a traditional spring startup, GeoSea began driving the 35 foundation piles in winter using its mega jack-up vessel ‘Innovation’.
Equipment and vessels are now of a much higher quality and have much better performance. At the end of January we started this project and we have had much less weather downtime. Innovation is simply huge and is a very different ship to those of five years ago. This vessel gives us the ability to handle much larger monopiles and to work in winter.
However, the most important difference is that it gives GeoSea flexibility. In this case, we picked up all of the foundations in Denmark and shipped them directly out to the site. There was no need for a base port or storage space. We had reserved Teesport partly for a mobilisation base but we did not need to use it as temporary storage of foundations.
And this is only possible because of the ability of the vessels of today.
PES: Could you outline some of the investments the company has made over the last few years?
BP: To maintain flexibility, we continue to invest in our fleet. We have invested in three huge jack-ups – Goliath, Neptune and Innovation – over the last four years, as well as several fast crew suppliers and maintenance vessels.
It is also no secret that GeoSea is mulling over the possibility of purchasing another ‘Neptune’.
PES: As well as investing in vessels and equipment is the company also investing in its people? How do you ensure that GeoSea has enough capacity to work on several projects in parallel?
BP: Indeed. Some 350 people are dedicated to offshore wind in the company and we can also use the resources in the DEME Group of course. This ensures that we have enough personnel to handle many projects at one time.
Currently, we have nine offshore projects going on in different stages. For example at Northwind we have just completed the monopoles and turbines, at West of Duddon Sand we installed the met mast, while others are in the engineering and preparation phase such as the extension to Kentish Flats and then we have Thornton Bank in the O&M phase.
We essentially have nine teams operating and they shift from one project to other, all the time building up more experience in how to get the project done as efficiently as possible.
Of course, this capacity doesn’t happen from one day to another. We have spent many years building up this expertise and training people. But now we have all the specialists in-house, which can handle any aspect of a wind farm development.
PES: Could you tell us more about Northwind?
BP: Yes, Northwind is a highly complex project and one that highlights that we have the right people, vessels and knowledge needed. It is added value for our clients that we have all this expertise in-house through all of the DEME sister companies.
With 73 monopiles and transition pieces, Northwind was an Engineering Procurement Construction and Installation contract. GeoSea carried out the installation of the foundations and turbines. We drew on the expertise of our sister companies for the inter array cables and scour protection. But GeoSea is the lead contractor so our client always has one main point of contact and doesn’t have to worry about interface issues.
PES: But Northwind was still a real challenge?
BP: Yes, because of the timeline. This was a real fast track project. The financial close was June 2012 and now less than two years later, the wind farm was operational in April with the first turbines generating electricity.
We managed because of our resources. We deployed Neptune twice, for the foundation installation and later for the turbines and in between she worked on other offshore wind projects.
PES: Did GeoSea work very closely with the client very early on in the project?
BP: Yes, another reason for the success of the project was the cooperation with our client. We were involved very early on, in fact during the pre-design stage so already there had been a lot of preparation and collaboration work before the steel was ordered. And I think this is an encouraging trend. It is better for clients and contractors to work together at an early stage, rather than waiting until the financial close before something happens.
PES: Having in-house capability is very important to GeoSea isn’t it? Could you tell us more about piling and your plans for procurement?
BP: Absolutely, over the last years, our in-house engineering department grew from three to over 20 people. These engineers are not those involved in the construction of offshore wind farm projects but solely dedicated to analyse soil data and perform pile drivability studies. They for example designed GeoSea’s own piling gripper.
We have a considerable piling record and we can use all of our in-house models for predictions in future projects. With Innovation we can lift monopiles of more than 1,000 tonnes, which is a plus compared to other contractors. Essentially we have a ‘piling template’ where we can handle big monopiles in 2 m plus wave heights. Goliath and Neptune have allowed us to develop new techniques for pre-piling, which have been adopted by the market and now become standard. This is really where GeoSea can make the difference for its clients.
PES: Driven by the need to reduce the levelised cost of energy, GeoSea continues to press on with its strategy to innovate? Could you tell readers about the dedicated ‘High Wind’ installation tool, which will launch soon?
BP: High Wind is a joint venture with Flemish investment firm PMV, G&G, Sarens and SBE. It is a dedicated spin-off company that is developing an installation tool to set up offshore wind turbines in high wind conditions. The ambition is for installation vessels to become weather-independent ‘floating factories’.
The High Wind prototype is expected to be installed on the first vessel by early 2015. The tool should result in an improved uptime of the vessels and considerable savings in terms of time, costs, and reliability for installation of offshore structures, all of which lowers Capex & Opex and makes the industry more competitive.
Currently wind speeds of 8-12m per second are the limit for the installation of turbines but we want to bring this up significantly by 20 to 30%. Large vessels still have too much downtime. It gets cheaper as we get faster and when we can work more easily in the wintertime.
This should lead to the continuous occupation of people and vessels and reducing downtime. We are aiming to do some offshore tests in January/February so it will be a true test of its capability! Although it will initially be installed on the Neptune, this extremely versatile tool will fit any vessel.
PES: Currently GeoSea has a broad European coverage but are you setting your sights further afield?
BP: We are looking at Asia and the US, and although America is perhaps a little too early, certainly preparation work in Asia is being looked after. Our parent company DEME has a considerable presence in Asia, so it would be a small step for us to be present there. But if we go it has to be real, it is not a case of dipping our toes into the market. A day will come I am sure, we are not going to wait until everyone else is there, we want to remain at the forefront of the industry.
PES: When considering the next few years, are you optimistic about your prospects?
BP: I think there will be a scarcity of projects in the near term. We are waiting for the new Energy Bill in Germany, the UK has a question mark over subsidies and France will take a while to get going. But once the market has the stability needed, it should start to become much more active and this will allow companies to make investment decisions.
Introducing ‘Innovation’
Innovation has been dubbed the most powerful heavy-lift jack-up vessel in the world and was developed by HGO InfraSea Solutions, a joint company between GeoSea and Hochtief Solutions. With its high-performance 1,500 t crane and a load capacity of up to 8,000 t, Innovation enables safe loading and installation of 6 MW+ wind turbines with overall heights of more than 120 metres, as well as heavy foundations in water depths of up to 65 metres. It offers an all-in-one solution – loading, transporting and installing – making Innovation absolutely self-sufficient.
Case study: Northwind
At Northwind, the DEME Group utilised several of its specialist companies such as Tideway Offshore Solutions for erosion protection works and cable-laying activities; GeoSea for the foundation works and erection of the wind turbines and Scaldis for the installation of the substation. A variety of specialised vessels were mobilised, including the self-propelled DP2 work platform ‘Neptune’, as well as the self-propelled DP2 fall pipe vessel ‘Flintstone’ and ‘Rollingstone’. More than 200 people were employed on the Northwind project during construction at sea.
