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FeedsHome: Winter 2009 › Future energy
Future energy
01/12/2009 | Channel: Maintenance, Electricity, Manufacture, Renewable Energy, Equipment
The Bard Group aims to become a world-leading offshore wind farm operator over the next decade
As a contractor, the Bard Group supplies highly productive offshore wind farms, including the engineering and construction of all necessary components. This starts with internally developed steel foundations, which are custom-made for the specific locations of the seabed, and ends with the rotor blades that are installed with a customised jack-up vessel. Service and maintenance are also provided by the Bard Group.
Heiko Ross, the managing director of Bard Holding, explains how the Group works:
“Bard is comprised of several companies, whose activities are co-ordinated by my company, Bard Holding. We started in 2003 with Bard Engineering, and now the Group includes Bard Emden Energy, Bard Building, Bard Service and Cuxhaven Steel Construction (CSC.)
“At the beginning, our approach was to get access to existing projects and to install offshore wind power stations in the German North Sea, but due to the bottlenecks we experienced during those times, we developed Bard so that we could provide a turnkey design for complete offshore wind farms. Today we own the intellectual property rights for foundations for offshore wind farms, turbines for nacelles, rotor blades, and we have our own concepts for installation and operation, and maintenance of those wind farms.”
The companies of Bard work together throughout the entire process, beginning with the project development and approval, and ending with the ongoing maintenance of a fully functioning wind farm.
Since the company’s foundation it has been involved in many interesting projects, and as Heiko explains, there are several more recent contract wins underway, with Bard Offshore 1 already under construction: “Bard Offshore 1 covers approximately 60 square kilometres and by the end of 2010 we will have installed 80 of our Bard 5.0 wind turbines. The rated power of the offshore wind power station will be 400 megawatts, and Transpower Stromübertragungs GmbH will be responsible for transporting the power to the mainland and feeding it into the grid,” he says.
The significant part of this project is that the installation will be handled by a specialist vessel called ‘Wind Lift 1’, which is especially designed for these kinds of operations. Heiko comments: “The ‘Wind Lift 1’ is another key component in our offshore foundation and wind turbine system.” Overall the self-propelled crane vessel is nearly 104 metres long and 36 metres wide. Wind Lift 1 weighs around 7500 tonnes and is powered by four pivoting rudder propellers, each supplying 1100 kW of power. In addition to a heavy-duty crane and an auxiliary crane, it has a special structure on the stern for precise positioning of the three piling pipes, measuring up to 90 metres in length, that are used for the special Bard foundation structure. Heiko says: “This pile positioning device ensures that the foundations can be piled efficiently and vertically despite their enormous size.”
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When the construction vessel reaches the intended location of the wind turbine using satellite navigation, it raises itself hydraulically on its four legs, each 71 metres long, enabling it to work up to ten metres above the surface of the water. The components for the offshore wind power station are transported to the project area by tugs and offshore pontoons. The 500-tonne crane in the stern of Wind Lift 1 lifts the foundation pipes and positions them exactly on the bed of the North Sea in the pile-positioning device using hydraulic grippers. Then the vessel’s own pile hammer drives the pipes into the seabed. Once the supporting crosspiece, which weighs around 450 tonnes, has been mounted, the tower, nacelle and finally the rotor, 122 metres in diameter, are installed in a subsequent process.
The special advantage of the Bard construction vessel is that it offers a safe, stable work platform even in unfavourable weather conditions, extending the period available for offshore work in the rough waters of the North Sea. Heiko continues: “We’ve tested all the processes intensively on models in the wave tank at TU Berlin. Extreme sea conditions have also been studied. Installation work can continue up to a wave height of nearly five metres and wind strengths in excess of force seven on the Beaufort scale. That’s the challenge we have to overcome with Wind Lift 1 if we are to install as many offshore wind turbines as possible in a short time.” When the wind farm is finished at the end of 2010, the vessel will also be used for maintenance work on the offshore wind turbines.
Using its own self-propelled jack-up platforms to build these offshore wind farms and to carry out service and maintenance, gives Bard a key tool. It makes the company more flexible and gives it the time leeway needed for installation and operation.
In addition to the jack-up vessel, Bard also recently added a ‘SWATH’ tender to its fleet. SWATH refers to a special hull shape that is less affected by swell, and the vessel will enable service technicians to quickly call at wind energy converters. To be delivered in spring 2010, this wind farm tender is being built at the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard using SWATH@A&R technology. This means that the SWATH wind farm tender will be able to carry personnel to the wind turbines and back to the accommodation unit on the transformer platform safely even in rough seas. The special vessel will be stationed at the wind farm. It will have a crew of three and be able to carry a maximum of 12 passengers plus a payload of around four tonnes.
In order to achieve its ambitions, Bard is continuously applying for further projects, as Heiko explains: “We received the permission to install a second offshore wind power station from the relevant authority and we are now preparing ourselves, after finalising the Bard Offshore 1 project, to enter into the construction of a second offshore wind farm in Germany. Called ‘Veja Mate’ this wind farm will be in the west of the German Bight in the southeastern North Sea within Germany’s Exclusive Economic Zone. A total of 80 Bard 5MW wind turbines will be installed in an area of 50 square kilometres in 39-41 metres of water. The first 40 wind turbines in the Veja Mate wind power station should be connected to the grid at the end of 2011.”
The German Bight station mentioned above lies north of the German Bight Western Approach traffic separation scheme to the northwest of the island of Borkum and around 134 kilometres west-northwest of Helgoland. The planning area covers 22.6 square kilometres and has a water depth of 39-40 metres. The more powerful Bard 6.5 wind turbines with a rated output of 6.5 megawatts will be used for the first time ever in the wind farm. A total of 42 wind turbines are to be built there.
Bard is also looking to expand beyond the German borders and the preliminary approvals for the three wind farms in The Netherlands have already been issued. “We are now working intently with the authorities in the Netherlands, to follow their criteria,” explains Heiko. Located in the Dutch part of the North Sea, each of the three wind farms consists of 60 wind energy converters. The three neighbouring wind farms are located approximately 35 miles north of the west Friesian island Schiermonnikoog just next to the German border.
Even though the company is still a relative newcomer to the market, it has already seen significant success. Heiko believes this is due to Bard’s superior business model: “We provide a complete solution for offshore substations, and although there are many participants in the market, no-one else covers the whole value chain of an offshore wind farm,” he explains. “I don’t believe any other company is as organised as Bard in this area.”
Heiko’s confidence in Bard is echoed by its financial partner Unicredit, which has offered valuable support to the company, especially through the recent financial crisis: “We have had some tough months in 2008,” Heiko admits, “and we had several discussions with our financial partner on how to continue with our projects. We invited Unicredit to the ship naming ceremony of Wind Lift 1 and Chris Holmes, senior managing director, markets & investment banking at Unicredit gave a glowing endorsement of Bard, which was very reassuring. We are very glad to have a very powerful partner like Unicredit on our side.”
Given Bard’s success so far it comes as no surprise that Heiko has ambitious plans for the future. He concludes: “We want to play a major role in the German market, and extend our focus on the European offshore wind market, where we want to participate as a supplier for offshore wind power stations. “Over the last months we have also received more international approaches from the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, where there are companies interested in participating in the offshore business. I think that we will have a success story in the offshore sector that that will be equal to the achievements that have already been witnessed in the onshore wind arena.”
Heiko Ross, the managing director of Bard Holding, explains how the Group works:
“Bard is comprised of several companies, whose activities are co-ordinated by my company, Bard Holding. We started in 2003 with Bard Engineering, and now the Group includes Bard Emden Energy, Bard Building, Bard Service and Cuxhaven Steel Construction (CSC.)
“At the beginning, our approach was to get access to existing projects and to install offshore wind power stations in the German North Sea, but due to the bottlenecks we experienced during those times, we developed Bard so that we could provide a turnkey design for complete offshore wind farms. Today we own the intellectual property rights for foundations for offshore wind farms, turbines for nacelles, rotor blades, and we have our own concepts for installation and operation, and maintenance of those wind farms.”
The companies of Bard work together throughout the entire process, beginning with the project development and approval, and ending with the ongoing maintenance of a fully functioning wind farm.
Since the company’s foundation it has been involved in many interesting projects, and as Heiko explains, there are several more recent contract wins underway, with Bard Offshore 1 already under construction: “Bard Offshore 1 covers approximately 60 square kilometres and by the end of 2010 we will have installed 80 of our Bard 5.0 wind turbines. The rated power of the offshore wind power station will be 400 megawatts, and Transpower Stromübertragungs GmbH will be responsible for transporting the power to the mainland and feeding it into the grid,” he says.
The significant part of this project is that the installation will be handled by a specialist vessel called ‘Wind Lift 1’, which is especially designed for these kinds of operations. Heiko comments: “The ‘Wind Lift 1’ is another key component in our offshore foundation and wind turbine system.” Overall the self-propelled crane vessel is nearly 104 metres long and 36 metres wide. Wind Lift 1 weighs around 7500 tonnes and is powered by four pivoting rudder propellers, each supplying 1100 kW of power. In addition to a heavy-duty crane and an auxiliary crane, it has a special structure on the stern for precise positioning of the three piling pipes, measuring up to 90 metres in length, that are used for the special Bard foundation structure. Heiko says: “This pile positioning device ensures that the foundations can be piled efficiently and vertically despite their enormous size.”
')";>When the construction vessel reaches the intended location of the wind turbine using satellite navigation, it raises itself hydraulically on its four legs, each 71 metres long, enabling it to work up to ten metres above the surface of the water. The components for the offshore wind power station are transported to the project area by tugs and offshore pontoons. The 500-tonne crane in the stern of Wind Lift 1 lifts the foundation pipes and positions them exactly on the bed of the North Sea in the pile-positioning device using hydraulic grippers. Then the vessel’s own pile hammer drives the pipes into the seabed. Once the supporting crosspiece, which weighs around 450 tonnes, has been mounted, the tower, nacelle and finally the rotor, 122 metres in diameter, are installed in a subsequent process.
The special advantage of the Bard construction vessel is that it offers a safe, stable work platform even in unfavourable weather conditions, extending the period available for offshore work in the rough waters of the North Sea. Heiko continues: “We’ve tested all the processes intensively on models in the wave tank at TU Berlin. Extreme sea conditions have also been studied. Installation work can continue up to a wave height of nearly five metres and wind strengths in excess of force seven on the Beaufort scale. That’s the challenge we have to overcome with Wind Lift 1 if we are to install as many offshore wind turbines as possible in a short time.” When the wind farm is finished at the end of 2010, the vessel will also be used for maintenance work on the offshore wind turbines.
Using its own self-propelled jack-up platforms to build these offshore wind farms and to carry out service and maintenance, gives Bard a key tool. It makes the company more flexible and gives it the time leeway needed for installation and operation.
In addition to the jack-up vessel, Bard also recently added a ‘SWATH’ tender to its fleet. SWATH refers to a special hull shape that is less affected by swell, and the vessel will enable service technicians to quickly call at wind energy converters. To be delivered in spring 2010, this wind farm tender is being built at the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard using SWATH@A&R technology. This means that the SWATH wind farm tender will be able to carry personnel to the wind turbines and back to the accommodation unit on the transformer platform safely even in rough seas. The special vessel will be stationed at the wind farm. It will have a crew of three and be able to carry a maximum of 12 passengers plus a payload of around four tonnes.
In order to achieve its ambitions, Bard is continuously applying for further projects, as Heiko explains: “We received the permission to install a second offshore wind power station from the relevant authority and we are now preparing ourselves, after finalising the Bard Offshore 1 project, to enter into the construction of a second offshore wind farm in Germany. Called ‘Veja Mate’ this wind farm will be in the west of the German Bight in the southeastern North Sea within Germany’s Exclusive Economic Zone. A total of 80 Bard 5MW wind turbines will be installed in an area of 50 square kilometres in 39-41 metres of water. The first 40 wind turbines in the Veja Mate wind power station should be connected to the grid at the end of 2011.”
The German Bight station mentioned above lies north of the German Bight Western Approach traffic separation scheme to the northwest of the island of Borkum and around 134 kilometres west-northwest of Helgoland. The planning area covers 22.6 square kilometres and has a water depth of 39-40 metres. The more powerful Bard 6.5 wind turbines with a rated output of 6.5 megawatts will be used for the first time ever in the wind farm. A total of 42 wind turbines are to be built there.
Bard is also looking to expand beyond the German borders and the preliminary approvals for the three wind farms in The Netherlands have already been issued. “We are now working intently with the authorities in the Netherlands, to follow their criteria,” explains Heiko. Located in the Dutch part of the North Sea, each of the three wind farms consists of 60 wind energy converters. The three neighbouring wind farms are located approximately 35 miles north of the west Friesian island Schiermonnikoog just next to the German border.
Even though the company is still a relative newcomer to the market, it has already seen significant success. Heiko believes this is due to Bard’s superior business model: “We provide a complete solution for offshore substations, and although there are many participants in the market, no-one else covers the whole value chain of an offshore wind farm,” he explains. “I don’t believe any other company is as organised as Bard in this area.”
Heiko’s confidence in Bard is echoed by its financial partner Unicredit, which has offered valuable support to the company, especially through the recent financial crisis: “We have had some tough months in 2008,” Heiko admits, “and we had several discussions with our financial partner on how to continue with our projects. We invited Unicredit to the ship naming ceremony of Wind Lift 1 and Chris Holmes, senior managing director, markets & investment banking at Unicredit gave a glowing endorsement of Bard, which was very reassuring. We are very glad to have a very powerful partner like Unicredit on our side.”
Given Bard’s success so far it comes as no surprise that Heiko has ambitious plans for the future. He concludes: “We want to play a major role in the German market, and extend our focus on the European offshore wind market, where we want to participate as a supplier for offshore wind power stations. “Over the last months we have also received more international approaches from the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, where there are companies interested in participating in the offshore business. I think that we will have a success story in the offshore sector that that will be equal to the achievements that have already been witnessed in the onshore wind arena.”
