Fred Olsen Windcarrier has hailed its new operations & maintenance platform using suction bucket monopile foundation technology as a “gamechanger” for the offshore wind industry.
The company has today unveiled its new technology – the Fred Olsen Windbase – which will allow the topside to be used as accommodation, control rooms and service centres on larger and further out to sea next generation offshore wind farms, as first reported in the reNEWS Global Offshore 2015 special report.
UK general manager David Matthews said that by “marrying established technologies and services from within the Fred Olsen related companies” they have created a fixed offshore facility that offers developers a way to reduce operating costs for the next generation of wind farms built further from shore.
“We’ve seen floating solutions and even manmade islands proposed for projects located far from shore,” he said. “Eon’s Amrumbank offshore wind farm will use the island of Helgoland to launch its island based service concept, which will no doubt be a great success and one that Fred Olsen Windbase will replicate across Europe.
“But new concepts must offer business case certainty and use established technologies with an experienced supplier in offshore marine contracting.”
He added that the Windbase is a “flexible solution with a mix of facilities and capabilities” that is set to boast an accommodation module, a full service base and a fully operational offshore heliport, removing the requirement for an onshore quayside facility.
“The beauty of this new approach lies in the fact that it offers a through-life capability, deployed very early in the construction phase for installation and commissioning, and remaining onsite until the project is re-powered or decommissioned,” Matthews said.
“I’m sure that through use it will evolve over time, with year on year efficiency gains further reducing O&M costs.”
An investment decision on the first full-scale version is expected in the first half of 2016.
Image: the Fred Olsen Windbase (Fred Olsen)
Fred Olsen unveils ‘gamechanger’
New O&M platform will reduce costs at offshore projects in deeper waters
By EBS