Offshore wind: Reducing risk in site selection and licensing
Are Norwegian offshore wind projects in the risk of beating the wind rather than breezing along? A newly formed collaboration between GEO and ExploCrowd aims to reduce risks in future offshore wind projects.
Northern Europe and the North Sea will play a key role in the further development of offshore wind. Ambitions in Norway are high, and the same seems to apply to the willingness to invest. But are we rushing at the cost of feasibility and success?
– The planned expansion of offshore wind is large and of great importance. One possible consequence is that the industry will rush to meet the ambitions rather than plan the work carefully and with the best possible utilisation of resources, says Sidsel Lindsø, CEO of ExploCrowd.
Accelerating the green transition in a turbulent world requires new partnerships, ambitions, and perspectives. To support companies and clusters in the upcoming offshore wind projects, ExploCrowd are joining forces with Geo – a Danish company specialising in the field of geotechnical subsurface expertise.
To get the most out of available resources and solve the challenges that lie ahead of us, we need to optimise the way we work and collaborate
GEO Department Director, Lars Brønnum Fisker.
Together, Fisker and Lindsø have outlined what they believe to be three of the most important challenges related to the Norwegian offshore wind development as of today – and potential solutions to go with them.
Risk No. 1
Companies rush to keep up with ambitions – without the results to show for it.
Getting further faster is always tempting. However, acceleration without the necessary resources and competence to follow up can be directly counterproductive.
Potential solution: When aiming for acceleration, planning is key.
Sustainable project lifecycle: Optimising the planned geotechnical soil investigations from the very beginning can save project costs and secure efficiency while acquiring the data needed. Early consideration of seabed and shallow subsurface geology can prevent wasted efforts and time overruns when you encounter a troublesome rock in the subsurface.
Foundations make up 30 % of wind farm costs, so understanding the shallow subsurface is critical for project selection and design.
To give an indication of the dimensions of the planned offshore fixed wind farms in Sørlige Nordsjø II and the geotechnical soil investigations required for such endeavours. An example of the Geotechnical Seabed Investigation Program for the Nysted Wind Farm with 72 turbines east of Femern Belt seperating Denmark and Germany is inserted in the upper right corner.
The pink lines crossing the study area are telecommunication cables connecting countries. The blue dots are geotechnical bore holes.
Brønnum Fisker explains how desktop studies can enable cost savings for fixed offshore wind parks:
Thorough desktop studies can optimise the necessary geotechnical investigative surveys for drilling ships, and potentially enable the use of Cone Penetration Tests, which are significantly cheaper than boreholes. In addition to saving cost, such studies also free up capacity for drill ships. This is imperative, as only 1 out of 5 drill ships needed for geotechnical investigations of the seabed are available as of today on a global scale.
Risk No. 2
Companies plan and invest in projects based on sparse geotechnical data.
Norway has a different subsurface environment than earlier adapters such as Denmark and the UK. Whereas they have shallow water with depths of around ten metres, Norway has greater lateral variation due to more significant influence from several glaciations. With only sparse geotechnical data available in the Norwegian offshore, one must find other ways to understand the shallow seabed geology.
Potential solution: Make the best use of extensive oil and gas datasets.
The new collaboration provides improved seabed topography and mapping through a valuable combination: ExploCrowd’s detailed knowledge about the subsurface through their extensive seismic interpretation on a regional and local scale – together with GEO’s geotechnical expertise and sharing data via their GeoAtlas Live product.
Norwegian clients are now offered services within:
Desktop studies of the seabed (preparation for when the data from NPD becomes available)
Geophysical investigations, improvement of conventional seismic data and interpretation
Integrated detailed Ground Models, from planning to operation. Easy access in GeoAtlas Live.
Foundation solutions and optimisation of those foundations for offshore wind turbines and electrical transformer stations
Planning an optimised geotechnical investigation survey program
Evaluation of cable-trace from offshore wind park to shore
Visualisation is an efficient communication tool. It has the ability of bringing people together through a common understanding of important aspects. GeoAtlas can be used throughout the entire process, including real time data during acquisition of new seabed data, giving clients valuable information and overview, says Lindsø.
Action during a collaboration meeting between GEO and ExploCrowd teams.
Risk No. 3
Poor utilisation of resources and workflow
When optimising our workflow, we integrate the various disciplines alongside getting as much subsurface data available as early as possible.
The Danes have built competence within offshore wind for decades, while the Norwegians have built subsurface expertise through their oil and gas activities. I strongly believe that two and two can make five in this case, says Brønnum Fisker.
High-quality, dynamic and project-driven integrated 3D modeling makes economic sense, and strongly supports project planning and risk management. The earlier you start, the bigger the gain. ExploCrowd and GEO's combined expertise within world-class Geotechnical Site Investigations and continuous processing, updating and visualization of integrated detailed ground models throughout the project period, from planning to operation, is a unique optimization opportunity.
Recent pictures from downtown Stavanger in Norway of two offshore wind foundations heading for the Sea Greens Park located east of Scotland. Note the Stavanger Concert Hall and the man in red for scale to understand the dimensions of these installations.
How the integrated geoatlas platform can speed up your business case
For your convenience the animated slide show video below provides useful information about the new services and the importance of knowing what challenges lie beneath the seabed.
GeoAtlas is a useful platform for visualisation and integration of important data showing the shallowest part of the subsurface, just below the seabed.