Acceleration of the industrialisation of the floating wind power sector will hinge on platform designs that are engineered for heavy maintenance and repair work at sea rather than towed-in to port – until now the high-cost ‘base case’ for the technology, a new study from World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO) has concluded.
The white paper, which comes out of a year-long dialogue with WFO member companies comparing a range of approaches to floating wind operations and maintenance (O&M), sees first- and next-generation floating concepts' chances in emerging international markets being reliant on factoring in new-look “add-on” cranes that can be fixed to turbine platforms during component replacement.
