Hornsea Two hybrid CTVs getting closer to delivery

Ørsted is set to welcome three new hybrid crew transfer vessels (CTVs) to assist with the construction at the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm.

Northern Offshore Services (N-O-S) will take delivery of its 39m Energizer in the spring and MHO-Co is due to deliver its two 35m CTVs in the summer.

The vessels will be based at the port of Grimsby and will take around four hours to travel to the project site.

The Hornsea Two CTVs will also carry Z-Bridge’s newly developed motion-compensated transfer system, called Bring-to-Work, which will be installed as an additional feature for technicians to access the transition pieces directly from the vessel.

According to Ørsted, the batteries installed on all three vessels can be recharged either by power surplus, the onboard generator or via a recharging buoy system that will be tested during the construction phase of the wind farm.

Both designs have been created in preparation for implementing fuel-cell technology once suitable storage for the fuel types such as hydrogen or methanol has been developed for use onboard.

“We at MHO-Co are very happy with the award of contracts to supply four CTV’s for the construction of Hornsea Two, with two already set to work, the MHO Asgard and the MHO Apollo are the next step towards carbon-neutral operation,” said Mik Henriksen, Group CEO of MHO-Co.

“As with our previous CTV’s we have worked with Ørsted to design superior sea keeping to support windfarms further offshore, with a high level of comfort for the technicians. These new boats will also be used to take next step technologies like hydrogen fuel cells, methanol and new types of batteries to market.”

Ørsted’s 1.4 GW Hornsea Two will comprise 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines scheduled to be commissioned in 2022.