PVTIME – The Finnish ship design house Deltamarin and the Barcelona-based engineering and ship design specialist Offshoretronic have concluded an exclusive engineering consultancy agreement. The partnership will co-develop a new jack-up monopile installation vessel (MPIV) and a wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), with the designs to be finalised to shipyard-ready standards.
This strategic cooperation aims to address existing capability gaps in the offshore wind sector. Offshore wind turbines are continuing to grow in size, with the next generation of 20–30MW units expected to enter commercial operation before 2030. These advanced machines will operate in water depths of 30 to 60 metres, requiring monopile foundations measuring 100 to 130 metres in length, with an outer diameter of 12 to 16 metres, and weighing up to 5,000 tonnes.
Current global installation fleets generally have an operational upper limit of 3,000 to 3,500 tonnes, leaving them unable to handle these ultra-large monopiles. The planned MPIV will overcome this constraint, becoming the world’s largest operating jack-up vessel of its kind. Belonging to the Vitruvian class, it measures 179 m in length and 75 m in beam, offering substantial deck space and robust operational stability. Purpose-built for lifting monopiles weighing more than 3,000 tonnes, its advanced system integration and streamlined workflows are set to ensure it remains highly competitive throughout its operational lifetime, with the capability to be deployed globally.
Alongside the MPIV, Deltamarin and Offshoretronic will deliver a WTIV variant built on the same Vitruvian platform. This derivative is engineered for the safe and efficient handling of 20–30MW offshore wind turbine components, including towers, nacelles, and rotor blades.
Together, the two vessel designs are set to transform large-scale offshore wind deployment. They will provide the necessary installation capacity for turbines above 20MW, while improving cost efficiency and raising operational safety standards across the wider offshore wind industry.
