Tuesday 17 September 2024
Offshore wind industry faces challenges
A new report by wind industry solutions provider Shoreline Wind suggests ageing assets and larger turbines pose fresh challenges for offshore sector.
With the offshore wind sector rapidly deploying scaled-up turbines – from 2MW versions in 2000 to potential 20MW+ variants by 2030 – new operations and maintenance (O&M) challenges threaten to undermine profitability, efficiency and safety in the sector.
At the same time, an aging fleet of wind farms now require either repowering or intelligently modified O&M strategies, jeopardising ongoing viability and financial success.
Considering these two challenges, the paper calls for early and proactive O&M planning that begins even before a wind farm is fully commissioned.
Michael Bjerrum, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder at Shoreline Wind said: 'The industry is at a crossroads. Larger turbines have increased energy production and reduced costs but they’ve also introduced new O&M risks.
'A single failure in these larger turbines can lead to significant downtime and financial loss, an issue already seen in onshore, and now emerging offshore. Combined with aging assets, the need to review and update offshore O&M strategies is more vital than ever.'
