Orkney Trials Demonstrate Marine Energy Cost Savings

Scotland’s Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing has announced that the first leg of a project in Orkney funded by the Scottish Government has demonstrated the potential for considerable cost savings using the capabilities of smaller support vessels in the marine renewables industry.

The Orkney Vessel Trials project, which has been facilitated by Orkney consultancy Aquatera Ltd, in association with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), was launched by Minister Ewing last year.

“The Scottish Government is committed to capitalising on the pioneering research and development work taking place in Orkney. In 2013 we provided funding of £1.1 million to EMEC to support a project that would assess the capabilities of the local fleet of vessels within the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters and how these vessels could apply their skills to supporting Scotland’s marine renewables industry,” said Minister Ewing.

Installation, operations, and maintenance are a considerable project cost for wave and tidal developers, alongside managing risk in challenging sea conditions. The objectives of the study were to investigate and trial ways to reduce costs of operations required for the marine energy industry, to demonstrate how a project involving many companies, vessels and people can be carried out to high safety standards, and to demonstrate that vessels available in Orkney waters can carry out complex marine operations efficiently and cost effectively.

The project took place during the quieter winter months in Orkney, with 20 local organisations, and over 120 individuals, working together on over 60 vessel operations.

Close collaboration and cooperation between all parties was key to the project’s success, and although the trials were based in Orkney, the outcomes are transferable to other localities with similar marine opportunities and challenges.

The project comprised a set of six performance trials covering workboat positioning and dynamic loading, gantry barge positioning and device deployment, clump weight friction, ROV operations, responses to man overboard situations in tidal currents, and dynamics of buoy submergence.

The outcomes have now been published to assist project developers in selecting fit-for-purpose and cost-effective vessels for future projects.

One example outcome is that the project demonstrated that marine energy developers could save 70-80% on installation costs by utilising a gantry barge and other local vessels rather than commissioning large dynamically positioned offshore construction vessels.

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May 22, 2014; Image: Aquatera