HHWE member Huisman has been awarded a contract by Heerema Marine Contractors for the delivery of a state-of-the-art Motion Compensated Pile Gripper.

This will be the third Motion Compensated Pile Gripper to be built by Huisman. This technology is playing a significant part in enabling the energy transition, making possible the construction of tomorrow’s offshore wind farms. The wind farm of the future will be constructed father from shore, in deeper waters and with larger, heavier turbines. In order to develop such sites, turbine installation will often have to be conducted from a floating vessel. The Motion Compensation Pile Gripper enables this to take place. It protects the monopile from uncontrolled oscillation during lowering and piling and compensates for vessel motions in the horizontal plane. This includes heave, roll, pitch and yaw – as well as drift when the vessel is operating on DP.

The design and construction of the gripper will be a combined effort carried out at Huisman’s locations in the Czech Republic and in the Netherlands. When completed, the gripper will be installed, via rails on the side of the vessel, to Heerema’s DSCV Thialf. The gripper will move up and down on the side of the vessel by means of hydraulic jacking system. The gripper is designed to handle monopiles up to 12.5 m in diameter, with a length of up to 115 m and a weight of 3,200 mt.

Charlotte Roodenburg, Huisman Head of Sales New Build: “Huisman is very honoured to receive this order, for Heerema’s first pile gripper. This is a complex project, the execution of which will draw upon the knowledge and experience of both parties. We are looking forward to collaborating with Heerema towards the delivery of a successful project for Equinor.”