NOV announced it has signed a contract to design and equip two wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) newbuilds for Denmark-based Cadeler. The new vessels will have the largest jacking capacity in the industry and will be able to transport and install seven complete 15 MW turbine sets or five sets of 20-plus MW turbines, NOV said.
Under its deal with COSCO SHIPPING Heavy Industry and Cadeler, NOV will supply the overall design for the GustoMSC NG-20000X self-propelled jack-up WTIVs—to be known as the Cadeler X-Class—as well as the physical jacking system that lifts the vessel and cargo above the waterline.
NOV said the hybrid, DNV-certified, cyber-secure Cadeler X-Class WTIVs are designed with 5,600 square meters of deck space and a carrying capacity of more than 17,600 tons, said to be the largest in the industry. The jacking systems will incorporate NOV's proprietary advanced regenerative power system technology that will provide fuel savings and emission reductions, the Houston-based company added.
Ordered in June for a total price of $651 million, the WTIV pair will be built in COSCO's shipyard in Qidong, China.
The first vessel has been contracted by Siemens Gamesa to transport and install one hundred 14MW wind turbines at RWE’s 1.4 GW Sofia wind park in the North Sea—one of the largest offshore windfarms in the world—and is scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2024. The second X-class WTIV is planned to be fully ready and operational in the first quarter of 2025.
Mikkel Gleerup, CEO of Cadeler, said, “The expansion of our fleet is an important strategic priority for Cadeler to ensure that we can meet the demand we are seeing from clients for greater installation capacity. In order to provide energy efficient vessels with very advanced technical specifications, we need to ensure that the new vessels will be as cutting-edge as the turbines we will be installing. Therefore, we have chosen to collaborate with the best sub-suppliers in the market. NOV has proven to be a good partner in connection with other projects in the past and we are therefore confident that NOV will provide the right jacking systems for the new X-class vessels, to support the current and future demand of the industry.”
Clay Williams, Chairman, President, and CEO, said, “NOV is honored to partner with Cadeler and COSCO as we design and deliver the next generation of wind turbine installation jack-up vessels. These vessels, which will be a key part of the next stage in the evolution of offshore wind energy, are a perfect example of what comes from close collaboration with our customers and an unending desire to seek improvement.”
In parallel, NOV is supplying new heavy-lift cranes for Cadeler’s existing O-Class vessels, Wind Orca and Wind Osprey, to upgrade the existing fleet’s capabilities to handle the next-generation of turbines.