Houlder and BMT Nigel Gee have completed offshore trials of their jointly developed Turbine Access System, or TAS, at RWE's Rhyl Flats wind farm off the North Wales coast. The lightweight motion compensated gangway provides improved access to wind turbines for maintenance personnel, in part because it can be installed on a wide range of existing wind farm support vessels, including those without DP, and does not connect to the turbine structure itself.
Tests were carried out aboard Turbine Transfers' 24m Cemlyn Bay vessel for four weeks in August and September. Wave heights during the trial at times exceeded 1.8m.