The offshore wind industry cannot operate a zero-subsidy project in the same way as an EUR 100 per megawatt-hour wind farm, according to Clym Stock-Williams, Wind Energy Consultant at TNO.

“Despite what people say about steel prices and risk premiums, and all the other things that are going to thematically deliver zero-subsidy, I fundamentally do not believe that we can run, we can operate a zero-subsidy wind farm using methods that were adequate for a 100€/MWh,” said Stock-Williams at the Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference in Amsterdam.

In the thematical session titled Offshore Wind Operations and Maintenance, the representative of the Dutch organization for applied scientific research emphasized that the industry has been doing O&M in approximately the same way in the last six or seven years and that is not the right path.

O&M tasks should be done exactly when needed based on measurement data, Stock-Williams said, emphasizing that companies can do less maintenance and achieve higher reliability if they plan earlier and more effectively.

“There is a lot to be done in exactly how we operate and how we achieve the fundamental cost per megawatt-hour that’s possible in the technology we have,” said Stock-Williams.

Other speakers at the session were Eeke Mast, Senior Consultant at DNV GL, and Andrew Kay, O&M Strategy Manager at Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, who was also the moderator.