Offshore. Fixed and floating.
ORCA
Lifting and installation systems for offshore wind, with variants for fixed-foundation and floating platforms. Operates from smaller crane vessels widely available in the offshore oil and gas market.
Cost comparison
For a 15 MW nacelle (500 tons, 170-meter lift), a conventional approach uses a 2,500-ton-plus crane vessel with a 200-meter boom at roughly $500,000 per day. ORCA operates from a 1,000-ton-or-smaller crane vessel with a sub-100-meter boom at roughly $125,000 per day. Less than one quarter of the day rate, with broader vessel availability.
Foundation tie-in
- Flush monopiles: chords tie directly to the monopile head via a bolted transition adapter.
- Oversized monopiles: 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 on a three-column semi-submersible.
Validation
Approval in Principle issued by the American Bureau of Shipping in May 2024 for a 15 MW offshore reference turbine. Independent load modeling completed by Arup (fixed) and Kent Engineering (floating).