Reflex will be speaking about The Access Challenge for Offshore Wind Turbines at EWEC 2009. Reflex believe that in order to meet the renewables energy targets for 2020 set by European governments, one of the major challenges will be ensuring safe and efficient access to installations exposed to hostile elements.  

The number of offshore installations in more demanding environments further offshore (up to 60 nm) are expected to increase significantly.  In the UK sector alone, over 5000 new turbines may operate in areas where significant wave heights above 1.5m can be experienced year round.  The offshore maintenance workforce, expected to rise to hundreds, will be tasked with ensuring availabilities of > 90% are maintained.  We estimate that, in the UK sector alone, some 250,000 transfers will be required annually, to maintain these assets.   Given this scale of transfers and the associated met-ocean conditions, the offshore wind industry will enter the ‘super-league’ of marine transfer users.  Access systems will need to provide reliable year round access, whilst maintaining the high levels of safety which will be expected of a modern industry. In short the challenge is to provide safe, reliable access, over an extended weather envelope and at reasonable cost.  The best solutions will be simple, robust, easy to operate and maintain and will minimize disruption to the overall running of the turbine.

Reflex Marine has developed several winched based solutions for the offshore wind sector, which they will be discussing at this event, building on established methods of transfer developed for the offshore oil and gas sector.  These solutions provide much better operating envelopes than current ‘vessel step’ based systems and low levels of risk. They are aimed at low volume of personnel transfers (one to four people) and protect personnel from the main risks associated with personnel transfer (impact, falls and immersion).  They can operate with minimal modification and maintenance to the wind turbine structure or support vessels.

After 10 years of involvement in  offshore personnel transfer activities Reflex Marine believes that we have a clear understanding of the environment and understand the importance of good design and operational control in the development of safe, reliable and cost effective access solutions.  We look forward to developing these concepts with the offshore wind industry.