Wind farm service vessel »Windea Leibniz« has been delivered from Ulstein Verft to Bernhard Schulte Offshore and ICBC Leasing and has now been named in Ulsteinvik. The vessel will shortly commence service at the Sandbank wind farm for Siemens.
It is the second wind farm service v[ds_preview]essel of the Hamburg based shipping company Bernhard Schulte and the Beijing based financial company ICBC Leasing. The lady sponsor, Dai Ling, named the vessel that carries the name of the German mathematician, philosopher and physicist Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, who in the 17th century proposed to use wind power to operate pumps.
Starting from April, the vessel, designed by Ulstein Design & Solutions, will work at the Sandbank wind farm in the German Bight for Siemens Wind Power Service to ensure the production of green energy from 72 wind turbines.
The usage of the Service Operation Vessels (SOV) will improve the efficiency of service operations at offshore wind farms, Ulstein says. The vessel functions as a platform for wind farm operations and maintenance support, technician accommodation and transport, and the provision of exceptional levels of safe and reliable access to offshore installations.
»The vessel has the X-STERN hull shape, which allows it to be positioned with the stern faced towards the weather instead of the bow only«, says Matthias Müller, Managing Director of Bernhard Schulte Offshore. He continues: »Her award-winning sister vessel »Windea La Cour«, which is working in the Dutch Gemini wind farm since August, has already proven that this leads to improved weather resilience, greater operability and reduced power and fuel consumption while on DP mode next to the wind turbine.«
