Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2021)

OFFSHORE WIND VESSELS

INSIDE THE RED-HOT

OFFSHORE WIND MARKET

As the traditional offshore oil and gas markets continue to struggle, the renewable offshore wind market is hot and getting hotter.

By Barry Parker s the cumulative maritime, offshore, port and lo- be the turbine OEM as part of the warranty period (typically gistics marketplace gears up for offshore wind 2-3 years) or by the turbine OEM under a service agree- energy on a huge scale, World Energy Reports ment. Alternatively, it can be the wind farm operator.

A(WER), in its report “2021 The Year When Off- 3. General wind farm operations and maintenance by the shore Wind Takes Off in the United States,” shows the antici- wind farm operator for their planned routine inspection, re- pated growth trajectory. Service Operations Vessels (SOVs), pair, and maintenance activities. For most large windfarms, which can commission and/or maintain turbines, are central these can be 20-30 year deals.

to the plan, and Philip Lewis, Director of Research, WER’s, 4. Major offshore repair and maintenance for unplanned explains that SOV’s are deployed for several functions: events, calling for the spot charter of speci? c vessels.

1. Turbine commissioning work during the construc- “Around 65% of the operational capacity and forecast for tion phase for the turbine OEM, with campaigns planned in this decade will be within 50km from shore; for O&M, this terms of months of activity and vessels deployed for rela- generally drives Crew Transfer Vessel or CTV demand,” said tively short periods. Lewis. “For offshore O&M support, SOVs are generally com- 2. Turbine maintenance for the O&M phase – this can petitive over 50km. This is because of the time taken to transit 34 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2021

MR #4 (34-49).indd 34 4/1/2021 12:56:54 PM