The breeze is blowing in the right direction for alternative energy. For ports, wind farms provide clean, renewable energy and greater levels of energy efficiency. Plus, new job opportunities into the bargain.<\/p>\n
Chris Lomax, Technical Director, Maritime, WSP, says that ports have a significant part to play in each stage of a wind farm’s lifespan. While the main benefits of wind farms depend to some extent on the port\u2019s ownership and operating model, he says that these relate to vessel and cargo movements and estate tenancy. \u201cThe extent of these depend on the stage of the offshore wind development and whether the port is the prime one supporting the wind farm or a supporting port to the main one,\u201d Mr. Lomax explains.<\/p>\n
SCOTTISH PORTS INCREASING ROLE<\/p>\n
More ports throughout the UK are becoming involved with important offshore wind initiatives. As confirmed in Scotland, the Port of Dundee has been selected as the preferred marine hub for a new offshore wind project with EDF. The wind farm will provide low carbon electricity for around 375,000 homes, with the port\u2019s role crucial. It will be the assembly point of each one of the farm’s 54 turbines, with completion of the project due in 2023.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Montrose Port is the operations base for SSE Renewables’ Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm. With an expected completion date of 2024, the farm will consist of 120 turbines, and a total installed capacity of 2,610 megawatts, offering renewable energy power for more than two million homes.<\/p>\n
A critical bonus of this project is that it is expected to provide additional (and needed) employment, with up to 410 wind farm operation jobs.<\/p>\n
THE BIG PRIZE<\/p>\n
Chris Lomax says that the manufacturing phase of a wind farm is generally seen as the \u201cbig prize\u201d for ports, although this is a rare opportunity. \u201cThe establishment of a factory, whether for nacelles, blades, towers or cables, is a long-term investment with regular vessel visits and cargo movements.<\/p>\n
Fabrication facilities for foundations and offshore substations may be long-term or could be for a single project. Greenport Hull is the UK\u2019s best example of a manufacturing facility, with the Siemens Gamesa blade factory.\u201d<\/p>\n
With regards to the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) phase, Mr Lomax says that, traditionally, these ports have been close to the wind farm, although the trend towards larger Service Operation Vessels, rather than the smaller Crew Transfer Vessels, means that the O&M support is weekly or longer, rather than daily, and can be from a more distant port.<\/p>\n
He explains further. \u201cAs well as the transfer of technicians and storage of equipment and spare parts, there is an occasional need for load out and installation of heavier major components. This may be undertaken from a suitable nearby port, possibly the original construction port, rather than the day-to-day O&M port. The trend towards SOVs rather than CTVs results in less frequent port visits, but with larger vessels. This can also impact on the shore-facilities required, and therefore the estate revenues for the port. Grimsby and Barrow, among others, have established themselves as hubs for multiple O&M support bases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Lomax adds that another aspect of O&M is the storage of spare subsea cable lengths. \u201cA cable store generally generates estate income through rent but has rare and irregular vessel visits. The Port of Sunderland has a cable store for subsea cables.\u201d<\/p>\n
FULFILLING THE OFFSHORE SUPPORT BASE ROLE<\/p>\n
There are also opportunities for ports to operate as an offshore support base, as Mr Lomax explains: \u201cThe Port of Blyth has developed a focus on subsea cable installation, with a number of equipment designers having their assembly facilities at the port, plus installation contractors having bases for equipment storage, operational support and vessel berths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Current trends will have a bearing on future wind farm developments at ports. For example, the growth in component and vessel size, with a significant growth in wind turbine size.<\/p>\n
Mr Lomax explains that the impact of this is that the capability of ports to handle larger vessels, plus the ability for them to jack up at the quayside, and component handling, will need to keep abreast of demand. \u201cThis has seen some of the original offshore wind construction ports become outdated as the industry has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
With respect to technology, digital technology may prove to be a disruptor for the O&M process. \u201cAlready remote monitoring and drone inspections are reducing the requirements for some aspects of man-access. As these technologies mature, they may reduce the type and number of visits to the wind farms, which would impact on the port requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another disruptive technology is foundation type. Mr Lomax says that, to date, the majority of offshore wind farms have used monopile foundations fixed to the seabed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerceived constraints on the water depths they could be used in (originally thought to be about 30m) have been overcome to some extent, pushing their use into deeper water (up to about 50m). However, there are a limited number of facilities that can produce monopiles of the required size, therefore other foundation types, such as jackets and gravity bases which require less specialised fabrication, have been considered.\u201d<\/p>\n
DRIVING FOR DEEPER WATER<\/p>\n
A final trend is the increasing drive towards deeper water (greater than 60m water depth). \u201cThis would open up opportunities in more countries, and access a much larger wind resource,\u201d says Mr Lomax.<\/p>\n
He expands further. \u201cThese will require Floating Offshore Wind systems. These look to be being floated to site or transported on semi-submersible barges, both of which generally have increased beam and draught requirements to the majority of existing conventional fixed foundation installation vessels, and therefore different demands on the ports. They are also likely to require larger quayside assembly areas closer to the wind farm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Bensalhia talks to a leading industry expert as he looks at advantages and trends wind farms offer for ports in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-terminal-operations"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}