Rystad Energy: Bigger turbine installation vessels needed to avoid offshore wind bottleneck

By 2024 demand will outpace the supply of vessels that can install new, larger, offshore wind turbines, according to new research published by Rystad Energy. 

There will be a bottleneck in offshore wind installation until vessels with more lift capacity come into service, the analysts stated.

Rystad added that turbines larger than 8MW will account for more than half of all installations by 2030 – ten years ago, the average turbine being installed was 3MW. The demand for installation vessels for turbines larger than 9MW, which was nonexistent in 2019, will reach 62 vessel years in 2030. 

Only a handful of purpose-built vessels worldwide can install  turbines bigger than 10MW and none can handle turbines above 14MW, Rystad said, but those installations are already in the near pipeline. 

Europe’s first commercial 10MW turbine was installed in December at Scotland’s 1075MW Seagreen 1 Seagreen 1 (1075MW) OffshoreFirth of Forth, UK, Europe Click to see full details wind farm by Cadeler’s Wind Osprey. But December also saw Siemens Gamesa receive a firm order from Ørsted for 23 of its 11MW turbines for the 253MW Gode Wind 3 Gode Wind 3 (253MW) Offshorenorth of Juist and Norderney, Germany, Europe Click to see full details site. 

EnBW’s 900MW He Dreiht He Dreiht (900MW) Offshorenorth of Borkum, Germany, Europe Click to see full details project in Germany will use 15MW turbines and when Equinor and BP announced Vestas as the preferred turbine supplier for 816MW Empire Wind 1 Empire Wind 1 (816MW) Offshoreoff Long Island , New York, USA, North America Click to see full details and 1260MW Empire Wind 2 Empire Wind 2 (1260MW) Offshoreoff Long Island, New York, USA, North America Click to see full details, offshore of New York State, they specified the company’s 15MW turbine, which will begin testing in Denmark this year.

A 1,500-tonne crane is considered the requirement to install 14MW turbines but Rystad said pending orders were for cranes as big as 3,000t. For example, vessel operator Van Oord ordered a vessel in October with a 3,000t crane that will be able to handle turbines of up to 20MW. The new ship will enter the market in 2024.

Rystad said in addition to newly built vessels, Fred Olsen Windcarrier, DEME and Cadeler are planning crane upgrades for existing vessels. Semi-submersible heavy lift vessels are also being proposed for turbine installation.