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E.ON secures state of the art offshore vessel from MPI
29.06.2011 + + + E.ON Climate & Renewables and MPI-Vroon have today signed a 6 year charter for the MPI Discovery, a specialist vessel used in the construction of offshore wind farms. Securing this state of the art new build vessel underlines E.ON’s long term commitment to development of offshore wind projects in Europe and will help maintain E.ON’s leading position in the offshore industry.
The MPI Discovery has six jack-up legs, which lift the whole vessel out of the water to provide a stable platform from which foundations and wind turbines can be efficiently and safely installed. The MPI Discovery can work in far harsher weather conditions than previous vessels used by the offshore wind industry and this means that the time and cost of building offshore wind farms can be dramatically reduced.
Michael Lewis, Managing Director Europe at E.ON Climate & Renewables said:
“I am delighted with the agreement that we have signed with MPI today. Reducing the costs of offshore wind power is a key priority for E.ON, and chartering a high quality purpose built vessel on a long term basis is a key part of our strategy. We believe the MPI Discovery is the best vessel on the market today and it will play a key role in enabling us to construct our offshore projects both faster and more cost effectively”.
Paul Gibson, Chairman of MPI said, “This charter cements the commitment of two companies, E.ON and MPI-Vroon, to the offshore wind industry and the renewable energy sector.
“Our joint goal is to reduce the cost of offshore wind delivery and to deliver successful offshore wind projects now and continuing into the future.”
The vessel can operate in waters 40 meters deep, its main crane can lift 1,000 tonnes and it also has 50-tonne-capacity auxiliary crane. 112 people can work on board and the vessel has its own coffee shop, gym and sauna to ensure that the crew can perform effectively even in the challenging and sometimes harsh offshore environment.
E.ON has a 4000MW offshore wind pipeline and already operates 5 offshore wind farms with almost 500 MW of installed capacity. Together with partners E.ON is constructing the London Array using another MPI vessel, the Adventure. The London Array will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when fully complete. In 2010 40% of all offshore wind turbines in Europe were installed by E.ON.
E.ON is one of the world’s leading power and gas companies. With annual sales of more than €82 billion and around 88,000 employees, it is one of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies. E.ON Climate & Renewables, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, is responsible for E.ON Group’s global renewables and climate protection activities. E.ON is investing 2.6 billion Euros in renewable generation and climate protection projects from 2011 to 2013 and will play a leading role in the development of the renewables industry worldwide. We are already active in On and Offshore wind, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), Solar PV, and Biomass . E.ON currently has over 3.6GW of renewable capacity in operation which makes the company a leading global renewable player.
MPI Offshore is a world leader in offshore wind turbine installation. The company operates the world’s largest and most powerful wind turbine installation vessel, the MPI Resolution. With more than 200 wind turbines already installed, MPI Resolution can transport and install wind turbines to exacting standards of safety, quality and precision.
This commitment allowed the company to break industry records in 2010. On 24 June, more than a month ahead of schedule, MPI Resolution completed the installation of 100 turbines in 100 days at the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm.
8 May 2011 saw the latest stage in MPI’s commitment to the Offshore Wind Industry realised when the MPI Adventure reached the Port of Harwich. Adventure’s sister vessel, the MPI Discovery will follow in November 2011. This will make MPI Offshore the world leader in offshore wind installation.
The vessels are the next step after MPI Resolution, “The Next Generation”, taking the lessons-learned approach to deliver increased performance across all the scopes required to install offshore wind turbine components and foundations. Full information of these exciting new vessels can be seen on our website at www.mpi-offshore.com
MPI is a subsidiary of the Vroon Group, a Dutch-based, diversified ship-owning group with an extensive North Sea offshore fleet. For more information, please visit
www.vroon.nl
Press Contacts:
E.ON AG
Jonny Stokes
T: +49-211-4579-3568
jonny.stokes@eon.com
MPI
Maxine Farthworth
T: +44-1642-74-2200
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