Offshore wind energy
The Commission published a dedicated EU strategy on offshore renewable energy in 2020 to ensure that offshore renewable energy can help reach the EU’s ambitious energy and climate targets for 2030 and 2050. Among the different technologies, Offshore wind energy is the most mature technology compared to wave and tidal energies for instance and offers great po tential as offshore wind speeds tend to be faster than on land. This small increase in wind speed results in a large increase in energy production.
The offshore wind sector is expected to grow. Towards 2035, a 3-4% global en ergy demand is expected to come from offshore wind and towards 2050 the outlook could be doubled. Although this positive outlook the political and regula tory environments are uncertain and may affect investments and the further devel opments of the sector, both in Europe and in the rest of the world. The demand for clean energy is larger than the supply and offshore wind will play a large role in the energy transition as an alternative to hydrocarbons.
Wind turbine energy output remains un predictable. From the perspective of energy management solutions are required for energy storage to account for the variable power output. The industry is also expected to deploy multi-purpose wind turbines that could act as offshore refuelling stations, store electricity in batteries, recharge electric vessels, and produce green hydrogen. While the direct use of the electricity is most favourable in terms of energy efficiency, the local stor age or conversion of electrical energy into hydrogen could encourage the adoption of hydrogen-based fuels as a mainstream maritime fuel.
There is strong demand for specialist vessels to maintain the 14,000 turbines in operation across 333 wind farms worldwide. A strong demand for installation and maintenance vessels such as Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) and Service Operations Vessels (SOVs) is seen, representing an opportunity for European Shipyards.
CTVs are catamaran-shaped technician transport vessels with an average capac ity of 12-24 technicians to be transferred on-site and operate on 8-hour cycles at sea while SOVs have an average capacity of 60-120 technicians onboard and op erate on 14 days cycle meaning that the vessel. Since 2017, the majority of CTV are coming from Singapore. Regarding the SOVs construction market, Europe and East-Asia are best positioned with ship yards from Vard (Vietnam), Ulstein (Nor way) and Damen (Netherlands) leading the way. This is a challenge to ensure that these specialised vessels are built in Eu rope, as competition with Asian regions is still strong for the construction market of CTVs and SOVs.
On the other hand, all these highly spe cialized vessels are predominantly designed in the EU and continuously evolve in response to customer feedback. Floating offshore wind is still some years away, but for example Damen, as market leader in this segment, is developing the Floating Offshore Wind Support Vessel (FLOW-SV) concept to optimize the instal lation of floating wind turbines. Similarly, VARD is innovating with their VARD 3 32 design for Walk-to-Work vessels, which provide maintenance, supply, and oper ational services to offshore platforms. These vessels feature advanced hull de signs optimized for low fuel consumption and high operability, along with diesel/ electric and battery-hybrid propulsion systems.
Offshore wind activity is demanding an ever-increasing effort to reduce their impact on the environment. As the technology develops, fully electric, hybrid, methanol and hydrogen powered vessels need to be developed.
Given the challenges and opportunities in the offshore wind sector, the EU ship building sector should focus on the fol lowing low TRL (Technology Readiness Level) research areas:
- Perform complex and highly integrat ed system simulations. Vessel perfor mance, performance contracting and op erability studies define the uptime of both the crew transfer vessels and offshore support vessels. This requires the need for close collaboration and co-simulation between suppliers and ship designers. This is both for relevant for installation as well as maintenance vessels and for crew transfer. Complex operations require care ful insights into the ship motion behaviour in relation to the specialised equipment that is used for such operations.
- The demand for low emission vessels in the sector requires for system integra tion of new power and propulsion systems. Research should be conducted on this specifically on this sector to accom modate for the specific aspects of this market where local charging or local refuelling might be one of the solutions for an economical viable offshore wind sector.
- Energy storage, energy conversion and offshore charging requires standards and technology development beyond the current state of art.
- Underwater radiated noise is impacting the life at sea in the vicinity of offshore wind parks. Innovative solutions and mitigating technologies need to be developed. Research is required to estab lish understanding of the impact.
By focusing on these research areas, the EU shipbuilding sector can contribute to the growth and success of the offshore wind industry, supporting the transition towards EU energy production of re newables, while also advancing its own technological capabilities and competitiveness.
Additionally, looking at the short-to-medi um term, the shipbuilding sector in Europe has significant opportunities to support the production of floating offshore structures, particularly for the burgeoning floating offshore wind industry. As Europe aims to become climate-neutral by 2050, the demand for floating offshore wind capacity is expected to rise dramatically, unlocking up to 150 GW of offshore wind resources located in deeper waters42. European shipyards, known for their expertise in constructing complex vessels, are well-positioned to lead the manufac turing of floating substructures, mooring systems, and dynamic cables, while ports may become manufacturing facilities in strategic locations.
Traditional offshore wind production, primarily involving fixed-foundation (bottom-fixed) turbines, has been a cor nerstone of Europe’s renewable energy strategy. These installations are typical ly located in shallow waters where the seabed allows for the secure anchoring of turbines. However, the limitations of fixed-foundation technology in deeper wa ters have led to the exploration of innova tive solutions.
Fixed-foundation wind plants are now joined by new floating technology that allows projects to be built in deep wa ters such as those of the Mediterranean, an area that is registering strong interest from many important national and interna tional players, particularly near the insular regions of Sicily Sardinia, and south of France.
In particular, floating wind farms (FOW – “Floating Offshore Wind”) can repre sent an innovative key element for the European energy strategy, guaranteeing maximum efficiency, in terms of yields and size, compared to fixed-foundation offshore wind (“bottom fixed”) and a lower environmental impact compared to on shore wind.
At present, in Europe there is no signifi cant industrial production of the floating platforms needed to satisfy the ambi tious targets set for decarbonisation us ing floating wind, while China is currently a major global producer of wind technolo gies, both for onshore and offshore installations.
The repercussions of such a production on Member States for port and territorial systems would be significant: from the on-site construction of floating platforms to the effects resulting from the recon version and specialization of ports (both for production and for related marine activities and related services) and on employment (both in the construction phase and for the long-term maintenance phase). Moreover, it is necessary to take into ac count the last EC Communication regard ing the European Strategy for Offshore Renewable Energy43, within which there is an explicit reference to the Maritime Spa tial Management Plan, considered as a tool for identifying maritime areas to be allocated to the development of renewable energy in Europe and for achieving Mem ber States strategic objectives in terms of energy and in compliance with the Euro pean Green Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this regard, the entire process of identifying areas suitable for the installation of offshore renewable energy production plants should be based on extensive criteria promoting the healthy coexistence of offshore installations, fishing communities and other uses of maritime space. This not only would enhance Europe’s renewable energy production but also strengthen the competitiveness and technological capabilities of the EU shipbuilding sector, driving innovation and economic growth. The overarching ambition for the long term is to maximize Member States production of energy from renewable sources and leverage the significant opportunities linked to the exploitation of marine areas and innovative technologies such as floating wind power and, potentially, wave energy generation or solar.