Offshore. Fixed and floating.
ORCA
Lifting and installation systems for offshore wind, with variants for fixed-foundation and floating platforms. Operates from the smaller crane vessels widely available in the offshore oil and gas market. Approval in Principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for a 15 MW reference turbine, issued May 2024.
A real project, modeled
15 MW turbines, sixty-seven units, conventional installation vessel versus ORCA. USD primary; EUR figures in parentheses.
Conventional install
$205M (€190M)
2,500-ton-class WTIV, full project
ORCA
$53M (€49M)
Smaller crane vessel, scaled platform
Saved
$152M (74%)
33% faster than schedule
The vessel problem
Roughly thirty vessels worldwide can install turbines above 15 MW. Booking lead times stretch eighteen to twenty-four months out, day rates exceed $500,000, and mobilization costs run $10M to $15M. Floating wind compounds the problem with 6,000-ton port cranes and $100M-plus port investments. Conventional weather windows limit useful working days to forty to sixty percent of the calendar.
The ORCA approach
ORCA operates from a 1,000-ton-class crane vessel with a sub-100-meter boom. Day rates sit near $125,000. The vessels are amortized, widely available in the offshore oil and gas market, and crewable locally. Loads route through ORCA's structural chords into the foundation, monopile, or floater, not through the existing tower. The lift is mechanically constrained, which removes pendulum effect and widens the operational weather window.
Foundation tie-in
- Flush monopiles: chords tie directly to the monopile head via a bolted transition adapter.
- Oversized monopiles: an intermediate collar distributes load around the larger diameter.
- Jackets: chords land on prepared nodes at the jacket top.
- Floating: chords attach to a dedicated landing plate on the floater deck, outside the tower load path. Modeled by Kent Engineering on a three-column semi-submersible.
What it does
- New turbine installation, fixed and floating
- Major component replacement at sea, no tow-to-port
- Multi-unit parallel quayside installs
- Avoidance of 90-plus-day turbine shutdowns from port queueing