wiredInUSA April 2017

Floating offshore needs scale

Subsea maintenance contract

March’s floating offshore wind energy event in Marseille, France, (FOWT 2017) was opened by Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope. His speech focused on the industry’s vision to maintain European technological leadership in offshore in the coming decades. Floating offshore wind has a pipeline of projects for the commercialization of over 300MW, and with a potential for 4,000MW in European waters. Dickson stated that Europe must deploy demonstration projects to “deliver a final message of assurance to investors” that the costs of floating offshore wind will fall as volumes increase. The industry expects a ten percent cost reduction by 2020, with a descending cost curve anticipated up to 2030. Dickson emphasized that bringing the floating option to the market increases the chances of more offshore wind coming online, adding that the clear areas of complementarity between bottom-fix and floating technologies can only be realized with the right volumes.

Energinet.dk has awarded a framework agreement to JD-Contractor A/S for the contingency repair of its subsea cables. The agreement covers all Energinet.dk subsea assets in Denmark, including the transmission systems and export cables for all Danish offshore wind farms. Thenewagreementwill run for afixedperiod of five years. JD-Contractor has already worked with Energinet.dk for twenty years. Rasmus Normann Andersen, CEO of JD- Contractor A/S, said: “It is a testimony to our experience in this area, and the good cooperation between Energinet.dk and JD-Contractor which, over the years, has proved to be a successful combination [with] completion of cable repairs in record time. This, despite often challenging weather conditions.”

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wiredInUSA - April 2017