Subsea Inspection Competition - Offshore Wind

Carbon Trust's Offshore Wind Accelerator programme launches subsea inspection competition – the challenges to be solved are very similar to those within the offshore oil and gas area.

The competition and subsequent support programme has been launched to support the further development and demonstration of technologies that address key offshore wind sub-sea inspection challenges. The competition aims to provide a unique opportunity for technologies under development or currently deployed in other sectors to access the growing offshore wind operations market.

Offshore Wind Accelerator

The Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) is a research and development programme focused on reducing the cost of offshore wind energy, and is part-funded by the Scottish Government. The industrial partners are: DONG Energy, E.ON, EnBW, innogy, Scottish Power Renewables, SSE, Vattenfall, Statkraft, and Statoil.

Four Specific Challenges

The competition will address four specific challenges, some of which should be of interest for GCE Subsea member companies and R&D organisations:

• Challenge 1 – Detection of subsea monopile circumferential weld flaws, particularly cracking and pitting
• Challenge 2 – Detection of subsea jacket nodal weld flaws, in particular cracking and pitting
• Challenge 3 – Inspection of monopile-transition piece grout condition, including grout density and separation of grout from internal steel work
• Challenge 4 – Subsea inspection of jacket-pile grout condition, including grout density and separation of grout from internal steel work

Seeking Technology Transfer from Other Industries

Michael Stephenson, Project Manager for The Carbon Trusts Research Area has this take on the challenge: – Offshore wind is now well established in Europe, and is truly entering its operational phase. This comes with fresh challenges but also many opportunities for both new innovation and technology transfer from other industries; this competition represents one such opportunity.

The Offshore Wind Accelerator is focused on continuing to reduce the costs of offshore wind, and with this call it is hoped that we can find the next generation of inspection technologies to help the industry continue to drive down prices, he says.

Application Deadline is 13 October

The application deadline is 13 October and the winners will be announced in November. The winners will be awarded mentoring support and access to an operational wind farm to demonstrate the technology and publicity support.

Read more about the competition and download the specification and application form at the Carbon Trust website.