Power & Energy Solutions

The premier renewable energy publication

Exclusive Articles, Think Tank, Wind

Innovations at the Borssele Wind Farm Site V Climate change and the need to reduce CO2 emissions are drivers for the rising demand of renewable energy sources. With proven experience and an impressive 20-year track record, Van Oord is leading the way in the transition towards renewable energy by constructing offshore wind projects. With innovative solutions, Van Oord contributes significantly to making wind energy more competitive. After two years of preparation, the first monopiles from the Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam, have been loaded onto Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel Aeolus and transported to the North Sea. The departure of the Aeolus is the green light for the installation of the foundations for the Borssele 2 offshore wind farm, including the two monopiles for the Borssele wind farm Site V. These two monopiles play an important role in demonstrating innovations for the offshore wind market. The Borssele Wind Farm Site V A new sustainable energy zone is under construction some 20 kilometres off the Dutch coast: Borssele Wind Farm Site V. This site has been designated as an innovation site within the Borssele Wind Farm Zone. Two Towers BV has been awarded the concession and thus given a unique opportunity to test

Read More
Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Wind

Geoffrey Vancassel, CEO at Sterblue, spoke to PES about this innovative company, which in 4 years has reached the serious player threshold. They provide easy to use software, complete with apps and a cloud platform, which enables off-the-shelf drones (DJI) to carry out complex inspections. PES: Hi Geoffrey, welcome to PES Wind, it’s good to talk to you. Would you like to begin by giving us an overview of Sterblue and tell us something about your role in the company? Geoffrey Vancassel: Thanks, it’s a pleasure! Sure, at Sterblue we are three cofounders, with some background in aerospace engineering and computer science, Airbus alumni. Nicolas Draber is our COO, Vincent Lecrubier our CTO and I am the CEO. Four years ago, we were truly disappointed to see that drones had literally no chance of performing some massive industrial operations: due to the low level of automation, with a real lack of digitization on the whole inspection workflow. That’s the main reason why we started up Sterblue. Now, we build software which helps drones inspect power lines and wind turbines. Our software guides drones along trajectories that wrap tightly around structures, finds anomalies from the collected images, and outputs reports. The whole

Read More
Exclusive Articles, PES Essential, Wind

The CompositeLoop project is a feasibility study that proposes short term solutions in Flanders, Belgium for the valorisation of large thermoset end-of-life GFRP (glass fiber reinforced plastics) structures such as wind turbine blades, boats and yachts, profiles, silos. The study is based on literature review and input captured during three interactive workshops with stakeholders over the entire decommissioning to waste valorisation value chain. It identifies promising local short-term scenario’s, with the purpose of initiating synergies within the value chain, allowing further technical and commercial development of recycling solutions as a next phase. 1 Large GFRP structures with fast-growing waste volumes Wind energy is the strongest renewable energy source currently in Europe and it will only increase because to reach the EU goals of 32% renewable energy by 2030, significant increase in wind power capacity is required. Wind turbines are being built since 1980s and boomed around 90s and 00s. They have 20-25 years of lifetime. Thinking about the development in wind energy in the last 40 years, it is understandable that every year more wind turbines are reaching their end of life. In 2018 alone, total of 421MW of wind power was decommissioned where 14MW was from offshore wind plants1.

Read More
Exclusive Articles, Talking Point, Wind

New methods and technologies are required in order to reach the potential of offshore wind as an economically viable and sustainable energy resource. The Port of Grenaa is internationally recognized as a wind hub, due to its special designed facilities and expertise attained by serving the industry for years. By providing innovative offshore wind stakeholders the opportunity to benefit from its state-of-the-art facilities and expertise, the port aims to advance the industry through collaboration. Supporting the global green transition is an essential part of the port’s agenda. The wind industry has always been a natural part of the portfolio and the Port of Grenaa has a long tradition in handling onshore wind components. The port had a breakthrough in the offshore market in 2011-2013 during the installation of Anholt Offshore Wind Farm, which was the largest offshore wind farm in Denmark at that time. Based on this, the port continues its contribution to the wind industry providing professional and specialized expertise. Attractive setup As one of Denmark’s leading industrial ports for wind turbine projects, the port has the facilities, the experience and the network connections necessary to act professionally with the industry. The port is highly committed in transferring these experiences from

Read More
Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Wind

PES had a great catch-up with Ola Svensson, Head of Project Department at MMT Sweden AB. The Swedish culture permeates this company, where safety and employee well-being are of paramount importance. This company has expanded from being a one-man band to an over 200 strong work force. Their survey solutions have expanded as has their geographical reach, meaning much to look forward to as we move to 2020. PES: Welcome back to PES Wind magazine. Would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of your organisation and how you currently serve the wind industry? Ola Svensson: MMT has been in the offshore business over 40 years now. It started out as a one man dive photo company and is now a company with more than 200 employees with offices in Sweden, England, Norway and just recently opened up an office in Boston US. We performed our first offshore wind farm projects in the Baltic Sea, approximately 20 years ago now and have served the renewables sector ever since. Our services have increased from Geophysical Surveys and currently include a wide range of services such as 2D/3D UHRS, UXO and Geotechnical Surveys. PES: We know you work

Read More
Exclusive Articles, Think Tank, Wind

In a bid to access stronger and more stable winds, wind farms are moving ever farther from the shore, with current planned projects up to 210km or more out to sea. The challenges associated with increasing wind farm output, however, are many, raising flags at every stage of the wind farm lifecycle. From project delays to overrunning costs, crew safety and even damage to assets, it’s all to play for when the whim of the local environment spells the difference between success and failure. Though it’s true that many unpredictable factors conspire when it comes to weather and wave conditions, by undertaking real-time measurements, performing relevant analyses, and developing appropriate risk assessments, decision-makers can be supported in mitigating - or eliminating altogether - the challenges that come their way. Decision-making support at every step of the way The lifecycle of a wind farm is long. In fact, it can last up to 30 years or more. Within this expansive timeline there are any number of opportunities for leveraging real-time sea state data to drive operational efficiencies and benefit the triple-bottom line. No matter the activity, picking the opportune moment to activate personnel is key, and easy access to real-time, local, environmental data

Read More
Corporate Focus, Exclusive Articles, Wind

With two new vessels a Danish shipping company has broken records within both safe, reliable and cost-efficient crew transfers in the offshore wind industry. But this is not all… PES is delighted to bring you a preview of MHO-Co’s ‘green’ hybrid vessels of the future, which are in the pipeline at this very moment. The two sister vessels ‘MHO Gurli’ and ‘MHO Esbjerg’ were designed by the CEO of MHO-Co Mik Henriksen, who founded the shipping company in 2015. He has a long career in the industry, having built both aluminium ferries and crew transfer vessels, and with he has never concealed his ambitions to challenge and push boundaries within safe and reliable crew transfer, whilst minimizing both the financial and environmental costs of sailing to and from offshore wind farms. Measuring 39m, holding up to 65 tons of cargo and with enough room for 24 technicians, these sister vessels are the largest offshore wind farm taxis in the world. And indeed, ‘Gurli’ and ‘Esbjerg’ were met by scepticism from the industry, when they were set afloat in January and May 2019, respectively. A scepticism which has long been put to rest. ‘Of course, there were teething problems with a completely redesigned

Read More
Exclusive Articles, Think Tank, Wind

In recent years, wind energy has become the main source of renewable energy and it is expected to be the number 1 source of power in Europe before 2030 [1]. By now, thanks to the environmental agreements signed by developed countries and being the drive to address climate change, an exponential increase of wind turbine installations has occurred and much more is predicted in the coming decades. With the rapid change of the wind industry based on the increase of the number of onshore wind turbines together with the take-off of the offshore installations, the requirements for grid integration are getting increasingly demanding [2]. Even if onshore wind power still has a growth margin, the most optimal locations are taken in most countries and now eyes are focused on the sea. The advantage of locating wind turbines offshore is that the wind is much stronger, and unlike onshore, gusts can be strong in the afternoon, matching the time of higher electricity demand. However, offshore installations are more expensive, with difficult access and much harsher conditions than onshore. The optimization of the LCoE (Levelized Cost of Energy) has been the path within the wind industry over the past years [3], highly influenced by the

Read More
Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Wind

Craig Marjoribanks, the Sales and Marketing Manager for HB Rentals, met up with us at PES. It was interesting to learn that this forward-looking company already has one of the largest rental fleets of ABS PAM certified modules, a must for business. He is enthusiastic about current projects and the future. PES: Hi Craig, welcome back to PES Wind, it’s good to talk to you again. Would you like to begin by giving us a brief overview of your company? Craig Marjoribanks: Hello it’s good to be back and give you an update on HB Rentals. We are a global provider of offshore modular temporary living quarters (TLQ’s) and welfare facilities for all types of offshore installations. From accommodation modules to galleys, mess rooms, locker, laundry, gymnasiums and more, we have a large rental fleet in excess of 300+ modules between our Aberdeen and Abu Dhabi facilities to meet our clients’ requirements. We also have facilities across the United States of America, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and Saudi Arabia allowing us to serve our customers from various industries on a global scale. PES: We know that you have a variety of different types of containers on offer, could you tell us

Read More
Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Wind

PES caught up with Anders Helsinghoff Fjord, CEO of Hagland Shipbrokers, Denmark, to find out about the changes and expansion in his business. Cooperation is a key factor in operations, along with local offices. It hasn’t been an easy time for this segment of our industry but Hagland are innovative and adapt their solutions to the client requests. PES: Hi Anders it’s great to be talking with you again. It’s a while since we spoke and so a brief overview of your company and the history will be of interest to our new readers. Anders Helsinghoff Fjord: The pleasure is mine. Hagland Shipbrokers, which is the former North Sea Shipbrokers, started back in 1976 with a port agency, which sold and purchased fishing vessels in Esbjerg. In 2006 I started the chartering department. Later in 2008, we joined the offshore wind market, with our first survey vessel. From there we developed into one of the leaders in offshore wind and have been part of many new vessel designs, as well as inputting ideas for optimisation and cost savings. PES: We note that you have changed the company name to Hagland Shipbrokers and wondered why and what this means to the

Read More
© 2012+ P&G Media. CR. 5706994. Registered in England and Wales | Power and Energy Solutions is published by P&G Media