RWE Innogy’s decision to by-pass existing contractors and build its own specialist offshore turbine and foundation installation vessels raises questions regarding the reliability and quality of existing services and the availability or these services in coming years. WindEnergyUpdate speaks to Thierry Aelens, head of projects & operations for offshore wind, RWE Innogy to get the inside story.

By Rikki Stancich in Paris.

In early December 2009, RWE Innogy - the renewable energies subsidiary of the German RWE Group - announced its decision to invest in specialist vessels for offshore turbine and foundation installation.

The satellite-controlled ships will be equipped with centimetre-precision for construction work at sea and are being designed to operate in water depths of more than 40 metres.

With a length of 109 metres and a width of 40 metres, the ships have been designed to simultaneously transport and install up to four of up to 6MW. The investment for each vessel amounts to roughly €100 million.

While building specialist vessels has its obvious benefits, it also raises questions about the existing services on offer and whether other developers should be considering similar tactics.

WindEnergyUpdate's Rikki Stancich speaks to Thierry Aelens, head of projects & operations for offshore wind, RWE Innogy to learn more about this latest vertical integration strategy and whether RWE Innogy may be positioning itself to service growing demand for other developers in coming years.

WindEnergyUpdate: What prompted RWE Innogy to invest in a specialist turbine and foundation installation vessel?

Thierry Aelens: We developed a purpose-built vessel for installation of turbines and foundations that is calibrated not only for the largest turbines available on the market, but also for provisional turbines that have yet to come on the market.

RWE Innogy has relations with most of the turbine manufacturers, which validated that the vessel’s specifications were compliant with the existing and future turbines, for which data is not yet publicly available.

The vessel can take up to 6MW turbines, which is what Siemens and Vestas have announced already.

WindEnergyUpdate: What unique capabilities and features will the vessel have?

Thierry Aelens: The vessel diverges with others on the market in that it is not shaped like a ship; it is more like a jack-up barge.

The difference is that it is fully DP capable – it has dynamic positioning, so there is no need for tugs.

The whole thing is remotely controlled - all you need to do is punch in the coordinates into a machine, much like a GPS.

This is a huge time and cost saving factor.

The vessel operates in depths of up to 50 metres. This is the maximum expected water depth that marine warranty surveyor authorises for this specific design of vessel.

It has a large payload, so it can take several turbines – up to four at a time.

It can also handle foundations of up to 750 tonnes, such as monopiles, jackets – it works for most steel foundations.

WindEnergyUpdate: Was the investment due solely to a shortage of vessels capable of offshore turbine installation, or is this part of a broader vertical integration strategy?

Thierry Aelens: Yes, we took the decision to invest in our own vessel due to the bottleneck in the supply chain.

Also, there is a lot of security gained by owning the vessel yourself.

Offshore wind energy diverts significantly from marine contracting in that chartered vessels do not provide the kind of performance, reliability or responsibility required by utilities.

Utilities have a big responsibility to customers, so the level of quality required and the demands they make are much higher.

Basic contractors do not always offer this kind of security.

By owning the vessel, we have more control and can guarantee better quality, we can control the costs and we can set our own priorities, rather than be governed by the priorities of contractors.

WindEnergyUpdate: The ship-building contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd. includes an option to build a further two identical vessels. Will RWE Innogy use these vessels for in-house purposes only; or is positioning itself to service the current and pending supply gap for turbine installation vessels i.e. to other offshore wind developers?

Thierry Aelens: Building in the option to construct a further two vessels was all to do with the security of supply.

Building vessels and developing wind projects are both long-lead items. As such, we have flexibility with the shipyard and we can decide freely on the features and specs as required.

At this stage, the vessel commissioned and the prospective vessels are intended for in-house use. When you buy a vessel, it is a long-term, big investment commitment, so at this stage we cannot say that we would never sub-let out the vessels.

WindEnergyUpdate: Has RWE Innogy invested in its own vessels due to concerns that existing offshore service providers will not be able to meet growing demand in the medium-term? Is it possible that an acute shortage of vessels could stymie the UK's Round 3?

Thierry Aelens: There is no solution to build wind parks without this kind of asset.

Whether other developers will buy their own vessels or not, it is difficult to say.

But for us, it is a good investment because it provides good security.

Often, the offshore service providers ask for a long-term commitment, usually up to five years. RWE Innogy didn’t want to be tied into contractors, who often take decisions based on market trends.

We wanted the freedom to make our own technical assumptions based on our own criteria. In doing so, we have gained the freedom to work with our own choice of turbine and foundation manufacturer, which allows us to ultimately decide how the engineering and foundations will look.

Regarding the UK´s round 3 we are very confident that the whole offshore supply industry will grow appropriately in the future to make such projects possible.

Especially this kind of big offshore projects across Europe will help the offshore wind industry to grow up und will also provide a lot of new jobs in the renewable energy sector.