Highlights of the Month: October 2017

Belgium Agrees on EUR 79/MWh for Three Offshore Wind Farms

Belgian government today (27 October) reached an agreement with the developers of three offshore wind projects on a price of EUR 79/MWh as part of the government’s support scheme.

Ninety 20MW Turbines for 1.8GW Norfolk Vanguard an Option for Vattenfall

Vattenfall is looking at using wind turbines with a capacity of between 7MW and 20MW at its proposed 1,800MW Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farm in the UK. [You can also read more about the project in our article Vattenfall Paints Norfolk Vanguard Picture.]

First Merkur Transition Pieces En Route to Eemshaven

The first 6 of the total of 66 transition pieces (TPs) for the Merkur offshore wind farm have been loaded onto a vessel in Spain and sailed to Eemshaven.

China’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Goes Online

The 300MW Huaneng Rudong project – China’s largest offshore wind farm – was officially put into operation on 30 September.

Innovation Working Full Steam on Horns Rev 3, Eight Monopiles In

GeoSea’s offshore wind installation vessel Innovation has installed the second batch of monopile foundations at the Horns Rev 3 site and returned to Port of Esbjerg today to pick up the next four.

Pieter van Oord: “We Need to Build Turbines Like We Build Cars”

“We need to build wind turbines like we build cars,” said Pieter van Oord, CEO of Van Oord, at the opening of the Offshore WIND Conference 2017 (OWC17) on 9 October in Amsterdam.

Four Companies Unite to Form Single O&M Provider

The Fred. Olsen related companies, led by Fred. Olsen Windcarrier and with Global Wind Service, Natural Power and ZephIR Lidar, have joined forces to create a single operations and maintenance (O&M) service provider for offshore wind farm operators.

Former Siemens Gamesa Offshore Wind CEO Joins CIP

After leaving the position of Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit’s CEO, Michael Hannibal will join Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) as partner to take a lead role in the company’s investment activities within the offshore wind business starting from 21 December.

Global Marine Acquires Fugro’s Cable Laying Business in EUR 61 Million Deal

Global Marine Group is set to acquire Fugro’s trenching and cable laying business after the two companies signed an agreement under which Fugro will, in return, get an equity stake of 23.6% in Global Marine Holdings.

DONG Energy Renames to Ørsted

The offshore wind giant DONG Energy has changed its name to Ørsted, following the sale of its upstream oil and gas business to INEOS on 29 September and the decision to shift move to green energy.