Bourbon Subsea Services to handle TetraSpar Demonstrator Floating Wind Turbine

Bourbon Subsea Services will manage the transportation and installation of the 3.6 MW TetraSpar Demonstrator Floating Wind Turbine.

This new turnkey stage, a part of Bourbon’s partnership with TetraSpar Demonstrator ApS, includes project management, engineering, installation, and offshore execution from the assembly port in Grenaa, Denmark until the hookup and the inter-array cable installation on Metcenter Test site in Norway this summer.

The defining feature of the TetraSpar foundation concept is the modular “building block” arrangement: each foundation is assembled from tubular steel modules, most of which are common to all configurations.

Manufacturing takes place in factories using industrialized methods, and their assembly near the site as well as towing are measured in days or weeks, instead of months, Bourbon said.

Another particularity of TetraSpar Demonstrator is its stability provided by a keel deployed 50 metres below the floater. This keel deployment is the main challenge for the offshore installation.

Bourbon Subsea Services will deploy innovative methodology to connect this keel to the floater in port and later on once offshore, to lower it safely and efficiently, the company said.

“We have been very pleased to work with Bourbon Subsea Services during the first phases of the project. Bourbon Subsea Services bring valuable experience from floating wind execution to the team, and all the partners welcome their continued contribution as we move forward to the exciting next phases of the project,” Henrik Stiesdal, Chairman of the board of directors of TetraSpar Demonstrator ApS.

This is the fifth floating wind turbine project Bourbon Subsea Services has been awarded since the company decided to develop its activities towards renewable energy in 2011.

”We are particularly honoured to have reached this final phase of the TetraSpar Demonstrator project. This is the result of a long-term team collaboration between Bourbon Subsea Services and TetraSpar Demonstrator APS. It demonstrates our capacity to deliver safe and innovative solution in a highly cost constrained environment. We look forward to supporting TetraSpar Demonstrator ApS and its partners in successfully delivering this installation,” said Patrick Belenfant, CEO of Bourbon Subsea Services.

TetraSpar Demonstrator ApS is owned by Shell (46.2 per cent), TEPCO Renewable Power (30 per cent), RWE (23.1 per cent), and Stiesdal Offshore Technologies (0.7 per cent).