OFFSHORE WIND
Photo courtesy of Jan Arne Wold – Equinor.
Repowering wind farms AS MANY OFFSHORE OIL & GAS ASSETS ARE REACHING THEIR END OF LIFE, DECOMMISSIONING HAS BEEN A MUCH-TALKED ABOUT TOPIC IN THIS INDUSTRY. OPERATORS AND CONTRACTORS ARE AWARE OF THE CHALLENGES THERE ARE FOR AN EFFICIENT, SUSTAINABLE, SAFE, AND COST-EFFECTIVE REMOVAL. WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE IN MIND, IT IS ABOUT TIME FOR THE GROWING OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY, TOO TO TAKE DECOM INTO ACCOUNT.
3 6 | O S I 2 0 2 1 | Volum e 14 | Issue 5
Decom nath.indd 36
M
ost wind turbines are designed and certified for a 20-25 year service life. After this period, they have to be decommissioned or the accredited operational lifetime has to be extended, often accompanied by repowering. While processes for decommissioning, and repowering onshore windfarms are well known, the experience offshore is limited. So far, only Ytrre Stengrund (Sweden) and Vindeby (Denmark) have been dismantled, plus two single near-shore turbines, namely Windfloat 1 in Portugal, and Hooksiel in Germany, as well as four turbines at Windpark Lely, which is in the Dutch lake IJsselmeer.
o ffs h o re -i n d u s tr y. e u
26-10-2021 10:15
