Renewables: Offshore Wind

1 February 2012 Aberdeen Branch Evening Meeting

Chairman David Kaye, Engineering Manager, Aquamarine Power

Report

Flyer

Overview

The offshore wind industry is attracting a significant amount of business and attention, including a number of large scale developments under the Crown Estate Round 3 Offshore wind developments. This meeting looked at some aspects of offshore wind which will be of particular interest to the subsea industry in north-east Scotland. This included an update on latest developments on floating offshore wind turbines, an update of the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, to be developed offshore north of Aberdeen, and a short technology bite on condition monitoring technology for wind turbines.

Presentations

Floating Wind Turbine Developments

Tim Crome, Sales & Business Development Manager, Technip Norway

Looking at Technip Norway’s experience in floating wind turbine technology, this presentation discussed the transition from Oil and Gas contractor to Offshore Wind contractor with the construction and installation of the world’s first full scale floating offshore wind turbine, Hywind for Statoil. Technip’s alternative design for floating offshore wind, Vertiwind, was also briefly presented.

European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre

Jeremy Cresswell, Chairman, Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group

The Aberdeen Bay windfarm project, more correctly known as the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, is a ground breaking new facility to be developed off the coast of Aberdeen which will enable the accelerated development of offshore wind power in Scotland, the UK and Europe. The centre will allow offshore wind farm developers and associated supply chain companies to test new designs, prove existing products and receive independent validation and accreditation before commercial deployment. The project has become a strategic project for the EU and which has attracted a 40 million euros grant from Brussels. This presentation will run through the project from its genesis to the present day. The road has been long and far from smooth and we’re not there yet!

Techbite Slot

The Benefits of Condition Monitoring Applied to Offshore Wind Turbines

Jim Marnoch, Business Director, SKF (UK) Ltd

SKF’s online Condition Monitoring solution (WindCon) is used to verify turbine health and to detect the onset of developing faults on critical components. This reduces cost by targeting maintenance effort at the machines that are exhibiting problems. This increases availability and output from the unit or farm as whole. By analysing the component failure history, and conducting Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), recurring faults can be eliminated by redesign, improving reliability. This presentation looked at the system, operational experience in offshore wind turbines, and how the system may be used for marine renewables.