The world’s largest offshore wind installation vessel built to date, the Pacific Orca, has been delivered by Samsung Heavy Industries. Ordered by global marine vessel firm, Swire Pacific Offshore Operations, the 161m jack-up barge will support construction of Dong Energy’s offshore wind portfolio.
Deployment plans for Pacific Orca are thought to include foundations installation at Borkum Riffgrund I.
Pacific Orca has been built to be capable of installing turbines in water depths of up to 60m and to carry a dozen 3.6MW turbines at a time. It has also been designed to install much larger turbines, of up to 10MW.
The vessel was built by Samsung at its Geoje shipyard in South Korea. The company is due to deliver a second offshore wind installation vessel to Swire later this year. The second jack-up, the Pacific Osprey, will work on the Dan Tysk offshore wind station, owned by Vattenfall and Stadtwerke München.
Swire has a fleet of 75 and plans to expand this to more than 100 by the end of 2015. In 2010, it bought Copenhagen-based Blue Ocean, renaming the company Swire Blue Ocean. This is the business through which Swire now serves offshore wind clients.
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