Oil & gas firms will need a “different mindset” to succeed in the fast-industrialising offshore wind sector, said the CEO of new market entrant and fossil-fuel sector spin-off Aker Offshore Wind.

Astrid Onsum said the growing global market for wind at sea is about “scaling and simplifying technical solutions and mass-producing them. That’s really quite different to oil & gas, which is very much focused on optimising one-off solutions.

“While there’s a lot of competence that can be transfered from oil & gas, it does require a different mindset. From an oil & gas perspective that means business models and delivery models will be different,” Onsum told the ONS Digital industry event.

Aker Offshore Wind was spun-off and listed last month by Norway’s Aker Solutions, with Onsum and her team given a remit to develop and operate projects with a focus on the rapidly-emerging floating wind sector, which a recent forecast from the UK's Carbon Trust said could grow 1,000-fold from its current base to hit 70GW by 2040.

Industrialisation and mass-production of floating wind systems is widely seen as vital if the sector is to achieve the cost-reductions needed for it to compete with fixed-foundation offshore wind and other renewable power sources.

Onsum said Aker would focus opportunities in floating wind globally, possibly with a secondary presence in fixed-bottom developments, as it builds on its early presence in the sector that includes project interests off South Korea and the US, and a stake in floating technology pioneer Principle Power.

Aker Offshore Wind’s engineering capability in deepwater offshore energy gives it a “differentiating capability” in the sector, said its CEO.

“The learning curve the industry has seen in shallow waters over the last 10-15 years has driven the costs down, while larger turbines are improving the economics.

“We’re seeing there’s now potential to tap cost effectively into deeper water.”

'Huge global potential'

Onsum, who formerly ran Aker Solutions’ wind unit, said there is “huge potential” for floating projects at depths beyond 60-metres almost everywhere in the world, with the possible exception of an belt around the equator where wind speeds are inadequate.

The new player is already known to be looking potential prospects the UK and Norway. She pinpointed Japan as another market with big opportunities for floating wind solutions, but expects a number of emerging Asian economies to begin engaging with the sector as its potential becomes apparent.

In its Norwegian domestic market. Onsum said Aker Offshore Wind is “excited” by the government’s release of offshore wind acreage, and said there would be more opportunities to leverage offshore wind to decarbonise the oil & gas sector, as already seen in Equinor’s pioneering Tampen floating wind project.

Onsum said growing synergies between renewables and oil & gas could see the former tap into the existing facilities operated by the latter “to build a new way of thinking about offshore wind in the North Sea”.

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Oil & gas firms need 'different mindset': Aker Offshore Wind CEO