A BOAT with racing car suspension, a giant robotic arm and a vessel resembling a seahorse are among 13 short-listed inventions hoping to solve the problem of getting engineers on to wind turbines at sea.
As more and larger wind farms are being built offshore – and in deeper and more remote waters – windfarm operators have come across a problem.
In waves as high as three metres as far away as 300km offshore, it is hard and expensive to get engineers and equipment safely on to the bases of the wind turbines, both during construction but also throughout the operating life of the farms, which could include thousands of turbines.
At the moment, access systems only allow transfers about 210 days a year, which means turbines could be left idle, but a competition by the Carbon Trust wants to get that up to 300 using new ideas.
A total of 450 suggestions were submitted, from which 13 concepts were picked as having the best chances of successfully driving down cost.
Among the designs shortlisted are:
A giant robotic arm for transferring engineers and equipment to the base of an offshore turbine.
A boat that uses suspension inspired by Paris Dakar-winning rally cars to remain stable for the transfer
A “seahorse” vessel consisting of a towering keel that minimises movements in the ocean swell
A giant harbour mother ship that would act as a base for engineers for weeks on end, dispatching smaller daughter craft to access the turbines.
Those behind the ideas range from a university student to established offshore wind maintenance vessel operators based in countries from the UK and Norway to Canada and Australia.
Benj Sykes, director of innovation at the Carbon Trust, said: “People have been building boats for thousands of years, but we’ve seen some truly radical departures from what you would think a boat should look like.
“These designs could significantly improve the economics of offshore wind and keep our engineers safe far out to sea.”
The Carbon Trust says offshore wind could create up to 230,000 jobs in the UK by 2050.
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