Offshore Wind Ports of the Future. An Innovative Solution for Installation, Maintenance, and Repair of Large Capacity Wind Turbines at Ports and Offshore

This paper will present an innovative solution which will allow the installation of large capacity offshore wind turbine (WT) components (towers, nacelles and/or blades) to any height, that requires no high-capacity cranes. The installation solution can be used at ports – for floating wind turbine integration purposes – and for fixed offshore wind installations (for wind turbines installed in monopiles, jackets, gravity bases, etc.). The technology will be compared to the incumbent technology used currently for wind turbine installations, which for fixed offshore wind is based on long reach, high-capacity cranes in Wind Turbine Installation Vessels (WTIVs), and on massive, ultra-high-capacity ring cranes at ports. Along with the performance comparison, safety and cost-related items will be assessed. The new alternatives are based on the use of an ORCA Lift system - a new technology developed by CLS Wind – that can lift any wind turbine component to any height, utilizing smaller capacity cranes. A 15MW wind turbine, with expected component performance, dimensional and weight data provided by NREL, is utilized for study purposes, as well as commercially available mobile cranes with the required capacity for quayside installation. The novelty and use of the ORCA Lift system at ports will both i) facilitate and ii) speed the installation and removal of any WT component at port, utilizing commercially available cranes that do not normally require extensive quayside reinforcements and large areas for deployment, opening many port locations to offshore wind operations.