Outreach Offshore Ltd Works with Long Term Partner PALFINGER to Deliver 114 Cranes and Service to Seagreen Wind Farm
Outreach Offshore Ltd and PALFINGER have a long term established partnership. This strong partnership played a major role in the bid to win a part in the Seagreen project to supply the transition platform cranes for 114 turbines. The Seagreen wind park will become one of the biggest UK offshore wind farms, representing a major investment into Scotland’s future. The wind farm will feature 114 wind turbines based 27km off the Angus coast, Scotland. This project is expected to deliver over £1 billion in economic benefits to Scotland and the UK and provide enough renewable electricity to power 1 million homes. As a Scottish based company, Outreach Offshore’s general manager, Stuart Finlayson, considers this to be an exciting opportunity to be involved in, in partnership with PALFINGER that both provides local and international expertise and part of the wider team of suppliers such as Seaway 7, Petrofac and MHI Vestas.
The PALFINGER product is an established name for quality and innovation over years of development in multiple industrial sectors for cranes and specialist lifting solutions. The wind energy sector requires specialist cranes that can operate in the most arduous environments whilst maintaining reliability and low maintenance, coupled with technical and legislative requirements that match LOLER and PUWER requirements. Specialist cranes are a necessity for the functionality of the wind farm to meet the safety and operational criteria for operators to be confident when using the equipment in a challenging environment. Therefore, the PF20000-7 LDB cranes were specially designed to meet the needs for this type of environment. The PF20000-7 has been chosen to deliver a lifting capacity of 990kg together with 7.0 SWH 2.0 m (Hs) and a working lifting height of 35m. These cranes have also been specifically designed to have a boom that can be easily lowered from its operational position into a maintenance position using its own bespoke mechanical system. This unique system allows for efficient maintenance at transition platform level without the use of scaffolding, thus saving the need for PASMA trained crew and valuable time onboard being lost. The operating system is divorced from the main hoist system, meaning the boom can be inspected, maintained or repaired without the need of power. The separate operating system has the added bonus that if the crane has lost power or other functionality or indeed a broken hoist rope, the boom can still be dropped to allow essential repairs to be carried out.
The commissioning of the cranes will take place in three major shipyards, split across two yards in China, and one in the United Arab Emirates. PALFINGER will provide support in each build yard, with local PALFINGER teams mobilising to install and commission the cranes. This local support approach will aid in the timeliness and turnkey approach in each phase of delivery across the complete project. Phase 1 delivery to Scotland will take place in the third quarter of 2020.
Outreach Offshore Ltd will provide the last stage in the project as waterfront support, as we are the local PALFINGER dealer based in Falkirk, Scotland. As part of our role, Outreach Offshore will provide set to work and handover for the cranes. Outreach Offshore will provide extensive parts and service support as we are directly linked to PALFINGER for technical support. Outreach Offshore will also supply operator training at our Falkirk works, where an additional PF20000-7 crane will be mounted on the Outreach Offshore test plinth. This will allow all training to be available locally to the project.
Outreach Offshore is a specific dealer for PALFINGER’s marine and wind cranes, as well as spare parts based in Scotland. We are located strategically to both support wind energy and also marine and oil and gas sectors. Our strong partnership allows local support for the many PALFINGER clients that need a quick response for product supply and support solutions. The Outreach Offshore and PALFINGER collaboration mean that quality and proven product can be fully supported to OEM standards local to any project with up to date technology and willingness to provide lifting solutions to make our clients’ operational requirements into a reality.