Samenvatting

Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) has a business growth objective of gaining more orders in the wind turbine generator installation field. For this purpose the company is interested in finding alternative solutions for their installation methods. The main subject of this report is finding alternative solutions for installing blades on an offshore wind turbine.

In this research concepts are developed for new systems for lifting and installing the blades with SHL's vessels that will work more efficient and cheaper. The investigation led to the development of an A frame that can be installed on top of a nacelle. With this lifting device it will be possible to eliminate the heave of the lifting vessel and control the blades better during the installation.

The main problems for innovating the existing lifting system lie in different working methods between installation companies and wind turbine fabricators. The fabricators of WTG's focus in their design on efficient energy generation and less on the installation process.
Seaway wants to install WTG's from AREVA Wind as well as from other fabricators in the future. This choice led to further research
into a system that can install different wind turbines. With the information that was obtained from AREVA Wind, an example of the M5000 from AREVA was used as a first model.

After testing, a number of results emerged leading to the following proposed advantages:
- No relative movement of vessel during installation
- Easier handling of the blade during installation
- Line up of the blade into the hub
- Saving installation time
- Saving installation costs