The Momentum Behind U.S. Offshore Wind: The Policy Implications and Supply Chain Opportunities.

This session will review the key port requirements to support the growing pipeline of offshore wind projects.

The presentation will discuss supply chain opportunities and specialized vessel requirements needed to support U.S. offshore wind projects, and the regulations and safety implications for the next generation of offshore wind vessels operating in the U.S.

Offshore wind is fast expanding with thousands of turbines requiring installation in forthcoming years. It is widely recognized that more installation vessels are needed but finance for such vessels remain an issue. The presentation discusses hurdles and potential solutions.

With twenty years of experience and increasing activity in offshore wind, forty industry stakeholders are collaborating in a Joint Industry Program (JIP) on site assessments of offshore wind farm (OWF) jack-ups. This program, the J-REG JIP, is being administered by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and is timely given the growing number and size of wind turbines being installed worldwide and with jack-ups the key building block to their successful installation and maintenance. The oil and gas (O&G) industry operates an extensive fleet of jack-up mobile offshore units (MOUs) with technologies and skills developed since the first such structures emerged in the 1950s. Many features of these units have been successfully transferred to OWF jack-ups. The goal is now to drastically scale up renewable energies like offshore wind requiring aspects unique to OWF jack-ups to be addressed with this dedicated JIP effort. This presentation will highlight the unique aspects of OWF jack-ups, such as use of 4-legged jack-ups, frequent moves to new locations, and crane operations with heavy lifts. The JIP has brought together industry sectors including offshore wind energy developers, owners/contractors, designers, classification societies, marine warranty surveyors, turbine manufacturers, universities, consultants, and regulatory bodies. The industry collaboration has identified gaps that require alternatives or additions to comparable O&G standards, alignment of current practices, and documentation of guidelines as an initial step toward industry standards.

This presentation will focus on floating wind technology for US offshore wind development plus lessons and best practices that can be transferred from experience with floating facilities for oil and gas development.

Offshore wind projects will require ongoing inspections that can be performed with a variety of robotics solutions. Effective selection of the appropriate robotics platform for inspection will significantly impact the economics of balance of plant inspections. Solutions for offshore wind balance of plant inspections will require subsea and surface inspections and remediation of foundations, inter-array cables, and export cables. AUVs and ROVs will perform the subsea inspection and infrastructure needs to be included to ensure that these inspections can be performed from onshore remote operations centers. AUVs and ROVs will need resident and uncrewed surface vehicle solutions to provide power, communications, and positioning and these same uncrewed surface vessels can provide platforms for surface robotics including drones.

With their massive scale and economics, floating offshore wind farms will require innovative approaches, especially when it comes to the mooring systems that hold the floating turbines on location. This presentation will address the parallels (and differences) between moorings for floating wind and moorings for oil and gas production facilities. Many lessons can be learned from the over 40 years’ experience the oil and gas industry has accumulated in the station keeping of large offshore assets. Noticeable differences will undoubtedly prompt innovation, but the skills and experience of oil and gas companies and their engineering marine personnel are uniquely qualified for the challenge.

This session will hear from key industry stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities of leveraging oil and gas expertise and best practices to advance US offshore wind development.