A leading academic has urged UK offshore wind developers to reject the arrival of mega-size wind turbines brought to market by Asian OEMs as deployment spreads to deeper waters in the North Sea.
Durham University head of engineering Simon Hogg told the OWNE2024 conference (pictured) in Sunderland the industry had reached a “tipping point” following a decade-long drive for larger turbine models to bear down on costs.
He said greater standardisation of existing models was now needed to support innovation in foundations and cables as attention turns to the Crown Estate’s potential leasing of an additional 16GW capacity off north-east England by 2030.
He said: “To deploy at scale we need some level of standardisation. China has a 23MW prototype and SANY wants a 35MW turbine but if we try and go there and increase turbines at the rate we have done, it will make innovation around how we go into deeper water more difficult.
“Fixed-bottom will have rapid innovation for monopiles to go (at depths) over 70 metres. Jackets are emerging as better for deeper waters as they are easier to standardise and arguably easier to install.
“Making turbines more reliable and reducing downtime is critical to meeting our mission and we need to have a holistic view to achieve all those things in parallel to meet 2030 and 2050 deployment targets.”