Van Oord’s Svanen undergoing major heavy-lift upgrade in Rotterdam
Van Oord’s heavy lift offshore installation vessel Svanen undergoing a major upgrade in Rotterdam (Source: Van Oord)
Dutch offshore and dredging specialist Van Oord’s heavy lift offshore installation vessel Svanen is currently undergoing a major upgrading project in Rotterdam to turn the 1991-built crane vessel into one of the world’s largest heavy-lift vessels.
When back in service during the third quarter of 2024, Svanen will be capable of handling the next generation of monopile foundations for installation in offshore wind farms.
The work currently being undertaken on the Nieuwe Waterweg (New Waterway) has seen the giant crane vessel grow 25m taller, to 125m, following the installation of a new A-frame gantry extension, weighing 1,200 tonnes, on top of the vessel.
The A-frame gantry extension was fabricated by Holland Shipyards at its Hardinxveld-Giessendam facility, near Rotterdam, and was installed by one of the world’s largest floating cranes while Svanen was alongside at Mammoet’s Schiedam facility. This is the largest single construction project yet completed by Holland Shipyards, who also provided new accommodation units to Svanen.
Besides the gantry extension, other work being undertaken in the upgrade of Svanen includes the modernisation of the vessel’s lifting hooks that will increase Svanen’s lifting capacity from 3,000 tonnes to 4,500 tonnes, an improvement of the gripper to handle increased loads and a modification of the structure of the vessel to accommodate the largest hammer size.
Due to the worldwide demand for renewable energy, wind farm technology is proceeding swiftly, with offshore wind turbines continually increasing in size. So vessels such as Svanen are much in demand and other operators are building new large wind farm installation vessels to meet this demand.
Following the upgrade project in Rotterdam, one of Svanen’s first jobs will be working on the new 1.5 GW Baltica 2 offshore wind farm offshore Poland, the country’s largest ever renewables project.
Svanen will install 111 extended monopiles for the 14-MW wind turbines. The monopiles will include 107 wind turbine foundations and four offshore substations foundations.
