Wind Energy – Floating Wind
Fred. Olsen 1848 and Huisman have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a Floating Maintenance Solution that aims to solve the challenge of major component exchange at a floating wind site.
Fred. Olsen 1848 has innovated a complete solution and operational procedure for major component exchange for floating wind turbines. To develop the crane required for such operation, Fred. Olsen 1848 turned to Huisman, a company specialised in tailor made lifting solutions.
The complete solution enables the exchange of turbine components at the offshore site and further removes the need for dynamic lifts when performing the component exchange offshore, which are both expensive and entails high operational risk.
The Floating Maintenance Solution has already attracted the interest of several large floating offshore wind developers. The development of the solution is now entering a new phase where the next milestone is to conclude a detailed project FEED study with the aim of bringing the solution into operation before the end of this decade.
Sofie Olsen Jebsen, CEO of Fred Olsen 1848, commented: “Innovation and collaboration are key to realising commercial development of floating offshore wind. The present floating wind component exchange solutions are too costly in terms of assets required, downtime of the turbine and available weather windows. We believe the Floating Maintenance Solution will be a game-changer in the market and can enable the industrialisation of floating offshore wind.”
