Former American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) senior executive Kirsi Tikka has joined US floating wind power outfit Ocergy’s board of directors.
Tikka, who had a career in shipping spanning some 30 years, much of it with ABS where she held various high-level roles and was most recently executive vice president of its maritime advisory, also taught naval architecture at the Webb Institute in New York between 1996-2001.
“Kirsi’s maritime experience combined with her strategic vision will help guide Ocergy in becoming one of the leaders in the offshore renewable industry,” said Ocergy chief Dominique Roddier.
“Floating wind has the potential to expend far beyond grid-bound generated electricity. Desalinisation, hydrogen fuel for shipping and other land-based applications, and wind to oil & gas platforms are technology spaces that need to be developed rapidly.
“Kirsi is the right person to challenge us to develop solutions for those new markets.”
Tikka said: “As the world aims at the net zero carbon future availability of renewable energy in global scale will be critical. Offshore floating wind production can play a strategic role in providing energy to industries and functions that require a worldwide infrastructure.
“Ocergy provides innovative floating solutions which can have applications beyond the traditional use of renewable energy.”
The floating design being developed by Ocergy – led by the team that hatched Principle Power’s pioneering WindFloat design – is a lightweight semisubmersible mainly-steel concept engineered around modularisation that would allow for the structural parts to be fabricated in working factories and shipped to port for assembly and tow-out to site.
The concept is being backed by US international oil company Chevron and Norwegian industrial group Moreld, with a prototype in the frame for installation in the Atlantic by 2025, and plans in development to equip Simply Blue’s 200MW Salamander project off Scotland.
By its calculations, a 10MW unit based on the Ocergy platform concept could generate power at a levelised cost of energy (LCOE) as low as $50/MWh from “large wind farms with good wind resource and favourable environmental conditions” – an LCOE that would bring floating down to a level on par with conventional fixed-foundation offshore wind.
Globally, floating wind power projects totalling more than 26GW are on track to be turning by 2035, according to latest figures from Quest FWE, with the fleet expected to grow “exponentially” as the first wave of utility-scale developments now taking shape internationally is boosted by transitioning oil companies and ever-improving economics.(Copyright)
