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Pushing the limits of offshore wind farm installation and transportation
With the rapid increasing size of Wind Turbine Generators (WTG’s), the transportation and installation of offshore wind farms is becoming a big challenge in the complex logistics around increasing the offshore energy production. Currently the capacity is around 9MW per installed turbine, which is expected to increase to 11MW next year. Furthermore, the latest turbine models being displayed by the major manufactures will increase further to 15MW within 5 years.
The challenge comes from the sheer size of the components. For example, the blades, though not relatively heavy, are heading towards 130m length, which becomes challenging to store on the deck of the ship. When considering transporting the blades transversally on the deck of a ship, the rolling motions could cause the tips of the blades to touch the water. When considering transporting the blades longitudinally, the length of the vessel becomes the limiting factor.
Furthermore, the next generation nacelles are expected to weigh up to 1000 tonnes, and have to be hoisted to heights of up to 150m above sea level. The ships currently used to transport and install WTG’s were designed for turbines of about 3MW, which would weigh around 150 tonnes and had to be hoisted to 80m above sea level. This development has occurred very fast, in less than 5 years, which is a fraction of the lifespan of a typical vessel. To keep up with this progress, vessels have had
to go through multiple updates since launch so they can still be utilized in the latest installation of wind farms. New opportunities With the American offshore wind market opening up, many new opportunities will arise which will also bring their own new challenges. The approach in Europe is to mobilize in the closest port to the location of the wind farm. This becomes a hub for the nacelles, blades and tower subparts. Getting the com-
