Turbine blades, towers, monopile foundations, and power cables are the prime areas in which the UK can secure new investment to boost its domestic manufacturing capabilities, the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) said. These are the priority areas in which OWIC is working with the UK government
EDF Renewables plans to build phase two of the Blyth Offshore Demonstrator wind farm off the coast of Northumberland using floating offshore wind technology. The first phase of the wind farm consists of five wind turbines and was constructed in 2017. It has a generating capacity of 41.5 MW and is th
The University of Plymouth has secured more than GBP 1 million to create a facility for testing new innovations in floating offshore wind technology. This first-of-its-kind facility in the UK will enable physical modeling experiments with wind, wave and currents simultaneously. Data generated in the
Falco Drone Technologies will commence trials of a prototype of its new drone in 2021, which is said to play a vital role in floating offshore wind inspection and maintenance. In summer 2021, launch and recovery trials will begin at ORE Catapult’s Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine off the Fife coast.
The iFROG robot that cleans and inspects monopiles has completed trials at Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth. iFROG is an amphibious robot capable of working in teams to clean and inspect monopiles above water level and up to 60 meters below (~6 bar
The Crown Estate has invited views on how best to accelerate the development of floating wind in the UK. The consultation is part of the UK government’s ambition to deliver 1 GW of floating wind by 2030. The Crown Estate has invited views on the scale of the opportunity for floating wind in the UK [
A consortium of offshore renewable energy and marine companies are exploring the viability of developing an offshore charging facility for electrified vessels. Funded by the first phase of the UK Government’s Sustainable Innovation Fund, the project – led by Turbulent Simulations, alongside Aluminiu
Offshore energy support vessel (OESV) operator, Seacat Services, has ordered two further Chartwell 24 crew transfer vessels (CTVs). These latest vessels, designed by Chartwell Marine, will be the first equipped with a new foil optimisation and stability system (FOSS) designed by BAR Technologies. Ia
Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult is investing in a prototype blade manufacturing facility at its National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth. The Additive Manufacturing for Wind Blades project will install an advanced manufacturing cell that aims to prove technologies that can reduce blade pro
LM Wind Power’s 107-metre blade for the GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X wind turbine has received its Component Certificate from TÜV Nord. The component certification hinged on the testing of two blades produced at LM Wind Power’s factory in Cherbourg, France, the company said. One blade completed i
The BladeBUG inspect-and-repair robot for offshore wind turbine blades has carried out its first open door walk on an operating turbine. Over two days in mid-October, the six-legged robot repeatedly scaled blades on ORE Catapult’s 7 MW Levenmouth Demonstration turbine located off the coast of Fife.
RWE Renewables has placed an order with a UK company Cognitive.Business for a machine learning tool that will improve vessel-to-turbine transfers at operational offshore wind farms. The tool, called WAVES (Wind Accessibility Verification for Enhanced Safety), enables highly accurate, localised asses
Siemens Gamesa has tested and approved the ZX TM nacelle-based wind LiDAR from ZX Lidars for Power Performance Testing on its wind turbines. The wind turbine supplier tested the technology together with ZX Lidars within a power curve campaign and, based on the achieved results both on the medium ran
The wind turbines at the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm in the UK do not feature the usual setup including boat landing structures and ladders, as its developer Ørsted purchased a novel lifting system. The 1.4 GW project is the first-ever offshore wind farm to deploy the Get Up Safe (GUS) motion-com
