Ulstein Verft has started construction of Bernhard Schulte’s third offshore wind vessel.
The service operation vessel, which Ulstein designed, is undergoing initial works, including steel and mechanical outfitting, mechanical outfitting, electrical steel work, piping and insulation.
Cable pulling will start within a few days.
Bernhard Schulte has already received two offshore wind vessels from Ulstein, in 2016 and in 2017.
The ship owner was the first to order and introduce to the market the X-STERN aft design, which improves the operational flexibility and work conditions for the ship’s crew at the offshore wind farms.
With all main equipment and operations in the aft ship, the vessel will naturally operate astern while in-field.
Bernhard Schulte’s third SOV from Ulstein is a larger model, measuring 93.4 metres in length and 18 metres in the beam and it can carry up to 120 people.
The design has been customised for the tender requirements of the charterer and the ship owner’s preferred mission equipment.
The SOV has a large, centrally positioned walk-to-work motion compensated gangway and lift tower for personnel and cargo transfers, plus the option for a 3D-compensated crane capable of two tonne cargo lifts.
The optimised on-board logistics includes large storage capacity, of which half is under roof in a controlled environment, and a stepless approach to the offshore installations.
In cooperation with the ship owner, Ulstein Design & Solutions has designed a diesel-electric propulsion system assisted by batteries to reduce operating hours on the main engines, save fuel and reduce environmental footprint.
Meanwhile Ulstein has also supplied Golden Energy Offshore with technology for two of its service vessels to improve their fuel efficiency.
“With Blue Box we will manage to reduce our fuel consumption and environmental footprint further, which is very important to us”, said Per Ivar Fagervoll, at Golden Energy Offshore.
He added, “With this pilot project and the programs aligned with this agreement we will be enabled to consolidate, process and analyse data and target our focus on energy efficiency.”
Ulstein’s Blue Box connects the vessel’s data system to the cloud for direct access to important information such as engine configuration and speed.
Golden Energy Offshore will install Blue Box on the two sister vessels Energy Duchess and Energy Empress.