Offshore staff
FALMOUTH, UK — HydroWing has designed a barge to support installation and maintenance of its patented tidal stream array technology.
This will be featured at the 10-MW project at the Morlais tidal energy site on the island of Anglesey offshore northwest Wales, which was successful in the UK government’s latest Contracts for Difference bid round for renewable energy developments.
Commercialization of tidal energy has been a slow process due to the high operations and maintenance costs, HydroWing said, with limited offshore construction vessel availability.
In its solution, the wing system is said to streamline operations and maintenance by allowing for the removal of sets of tidal energy turbines without the need to also remove or work on the foundations.
The new Quad Hull Barge has four hulls connected by crossbeams and arch support beams, increasing the limit to load width. Commercial vessels would typically need to place the load onto the deck with little to no overhang of the load, the company explained, while the barge locks the load after lifting to the arch.
That is said to reduce offshore handling, making the operation much safer. And the width of the load can be independent of the vessel width.
It is modular, so it can be transported by road and assembled at site, and it also can easily be scaled up for larger turbines. The four pontoons, each weighing 25 metric tons, can be transported by road.
In addition, the barge is said to be low drag and can therefore be handled by small, locally available tugs. It will allow the HydroWing tidal energy arrays to be serviced by existing port infrastructure, rather than requiring major new investment, the company added.
01.17.2024
