by Scott Cruttenden
Director of Business Development, Global Maritime
The rapid acceleration of the global offshore wind industry, with worldwide capacity increasing ten-fold in the last decade, looks to continue in the coming years, particularly with the rise in floating offshore wind projects on the horizon. High net-zero targets have driven this dramatic growth in the industry, as many countries look to lean on fixed and floating offshore wind as a primary generator of green electricity. These goals, however, don’t come without their challenges, which are currently playing out in this sector - one such challenge being the availability and readiness of ports.
The UK, for example, has an offshore wind pipeline of nearly 100GW*, which means there is fierce competition for port availability, despite the UK being one of the more readily equipped countries to cater for the large offshore wind demand. As a result, many ports are in the process of securing investment and funding to improve their facilities to be able to accommodate and support these large projects. This process however is not moving at the pace and momentum to ensure alignment with project landscape.
So, what can companies like Global Maritime do to support developers and their partners in navigating the suitability of ports for their projects?
Having worked in the maritime industry for over 40 years, Global Maritime has built up a strong network across the sector, inclusive of port authorities, vessel owners, developers and technology providers. During the process of an offshore wind project, we leverage both our global footprint and relevant local relationships to build out an appropriate strategy that would allow us to seek out the relevant information and facilities for the project.
We assess ports based on several key factors, including quayside capacity, accessibility for the larger vessels, seabed hazards, navigational risks and onshore infrastructure. This is becoming increasingly difficult, as developers position for port capacity, not just within the offshore wind industry construction and O&M phases, but also other large infrastructure projects across the energy and energy transition landscape.
During any important infrastructure assessment project, we take complete end-to-end ownership of interacting across all stakeholders to ensure we are collating and understanding all of the key and relevant information and data. This is one of the unique advantages of Global Maritime, as a multi-disciplinary and global organisation. From engineering, master mariners and marine operations, we are able to look holistically and streamline this part of the project. Whilst we remain competitive on price, we have won many tenders based on this advantage, providing a one-stop-shop for developers.
The use of technology and software is also key to addressing challenges. Global Maritime’s industry-leading OPSIM software brings a unique complement to port assessments. Typically, OPSIM will run complex simulations to understand and mitigate risks, support with vessel selection, understand the implications of weather, navigational risk, and generally build out a credible, overarching simulation of the project.
Recently being utilised on both an East Coast USA project and a second-round Taiwanese project, OPSIM provides a comprehensive level of insight, reducing the unknown variables for a project.
The challenges regarding ports and infrastructure are being seen in offshore wind markets across the world and need to be addressed to enable all pipeline projects to be completed and for costs to be lowered. Nevertheless, streamlining the efficiency of an offshore wind project with Global Maritime is a clear choice, as we tap into our decades of experience in the sector to enable project success, from port and infrastructure assessments, all the way through to construction.
*Source RenewableUK
