Following successful trials at a wind farm in the UK last year, Danish company Ørsted has now started using heavy-lift drones on a 94-turbine offshore wind farm in the North Sea, making resupply missions up to 15 times faster and reducing costs.
Offshore wind farms are a vital part of the renewable energy mix, but getting the necessary materials to the turbines can be both costly and time-consuming. Energy company Ørsted has partnered with transport/logistics company DSV to trial delivering components to technicians working on turbines by drone in 2022, rather than ferrying them from shore.
Another trial at Hornsea 1 Offshore Wind Farm in the UK last October involved heavy-lift drones that could carry 68 kg (150 lb) of cargo from support vessels to the turbine nacelle, much faster than using cranes. Now the company has deployed larger drones for an operational campaign at Borssele 1&2 Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of the Netherlands in the North Sea, which Ørsted built in 2020.
The campaign involves moving critical evacuation and safety equipment to each of the Farm’s 94 Siemens Gamesa 8-MW turbines. This would normally require sending a ship to each turbine and using a crane to lift the gear onto the transition piece. The nacelle’s crane then comes in and lifts the package to the top of the turbine. Ørsted says this approach can take around six hours per turbine.
By comparison, a heavy-lift drone capable of carrying up to 100 kg (220.5 lb) of cargo would pick up a supply box from the support ship, fly to the top of the nacelle, deliver it safely, and then return to the support ship for the next one, repeating this until the mission is complete. Each trip reportedly takes around 4 minutes, and Ørsted reckons this makes the entire operation 10-15 times faster.
The company also hopes to save operational costs, increase safety and perform such tasks without having to shut down a turbine while cargo is being delivered. Carbon emissions should also be reduced as the need for multiple journeys by ship is minimised. All of this will “further improve the commercial basis for offshore wind for investors, governments and companies”, according to Ørsted’s Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy CEO Rasmus Errboe.
Source: Ørsted