Tetrahedron plans to construct a prototype crane for offshore wind, together with its consortium made up of Jack-Up Barge BV, TNO, Shell, and GE.
This comes after the consortium received a grant, a loan, and an investment from the Dutch government.
New technologies are developed to handle the next generation of wind turbine generators as offshore wind turbines continue to grow in size. Tetrahedron has developed a patented novel type of crane design that, on the same foundation, can lift objects higher than a typical luffing boom crane. When the prototype is finished in the Netherlands in 2024, this will be visible as a skyscraping structure.
The Tetrahedron crane’s structural behavior will be measured using the prototype in order to confirm the design and test the crane’s resistance to current phenomena like crane-deflection and a sudden loss of load. Additionally, the full-scale Tetrahedron prototype crane serves as proof to the wind industry that the Tetrahedron crane has the ability to lift objects higher than those that can be lifted by standard cranes without the need to construct an entirely new Jack-Up Vessel.
Image source: Tetrahedron
