Pioneering Danish floating wind player Stiesdal Offshore has set the seal on a strategic cooperation deal with compatriot maritime contractor Maersk Supply Service (MSS) to offer turnkey engineering for foundation and mooring solutions for deepwater projects in the emerging offshore sector.
The tie-up’s EPCI (engineering, procurement, construction and installation) approach is meant to “streamline the value chain, facilitating fast-track installations and ultimately bringing down the levellised cost of floating wind”, said the two companies announcing the partnership.
“MSS is a global operator with decades of marine services to its name. Stiesdal has the technologies for developing competitive floating wind on a truly global scale,” said Stiesdal Offshore CTO Henrik Stiesdal, whose innovative TetraSpar concept is in prototype testing off western Norway backed by Shell, RWE and Tepco.
“I am confident that with the combined capabilities of the two companies we can fulfil a significant share of the ambitious targets being set for floating wind in the coming decade.”
MSS CEO Steen Karstensen said: “With this partnership, we want to offer our customers a combined EPCI solution for floating wind foundation design, fabrication, assembly and installation. We believe this will simplify the value chain in the growing floating wind sector, which is still in the early stages, but which will also by necessity see rapid expansion and growth in the coming decade.”
MSS, which has a 50-year track record in towing and mooring for the maritime and offshore oil & gas industries, is diversifying into floating wind, with projects such as the recently executed mooring system installation on technology start-up Saitec’s DemoSath floating project off Bilbao, Spain.
“This collaboration enables seamless interfacing between foundation design, fabrication and assembly execution, and offshore installation,” according to the two companies.
“Through pre-existing, fully worked-out base solutions, the partnership will allow faster and more robust optimisation for specific project needs and will facilitate shorter overall project durations, reduced working capital cycles, smoother foundation fabrication to installation, and overall reduced risk and improved project delivery.”
The tie-up is structured so that MSS will act as lead contractor on projects carried out as part of the collaboration, with Stiesdal Offshore acting as subcontractor to the larger company.
Consultancy DNV calculates floating wind projects currently make up over 15% of the total offshore wind deployment in the pipeline for switch-on by mid-century, equal to some 264GW of the 1,748GW slated to be installed.
