Jack-up platform with receiving space for a barge and method for offshore installation of a wind turbine

Abstract

A jack-up platform is described having a horizontal working deck that may be jacked up out of the water by moving its legs to a position wherein they take support on an underwater bottom. The jack-up platform further includes a higher level deck and a lower level deck that define a receiving space for a barge, optionally suitable for carrying parts for construction of a wind turbine, and further a deballasting system configured to bring the floating hull between a receiving position at which the hull is ballasted to a receiving draft in which the lower level deck is submerged underwater and the barge may be received in the receiving space through an opening in the hull, and an operational smaller draft where substantially no water can flow on either of the lower and higher level decks. The receiving space has a centralizing system configured to substantially centralize the received floating barge in the receiving space. A method for facilitating the offshore installation of a wind turbine using the jack-up platform is also described.