Successful conference on “Service vessels for offshore wind parks”

The conference had about forty five European participants representing ship owners, captains, shipyards, energy companies, marine equipment suppliers, classification societies and universities who during two days discussed the challenges facing participants engaged in this new marine industrial field.

The participants also visited the Kockums plant and the ongoing production of the first CarboCAT23

It was a very open and successful discussion covering among other subjects the benefit of using carbon fibre vessels, docking applications, classification rules and regulations as well as the market need for these types of vessels.

Presenters came from DNV, MarinTek, Opus Marine, Project 53°, Rödne AS, Royal Institute of Technology and Vattenfall.

Two major conclusions were reached during the deliberations:

1) As the Service vessels required by the market are opening a new application field, there is an urgent need for an adaptation of the classification rules and an adaptation of the national regulations to reach harmonized requirements between countries around the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.

2) The docking system must guarantee a safe personal transfer from the vessel to the windmill tower, particularly under high wave conditions. A standardization of the docking system, through a close cooperation between ship builders, windmill tower designers and users (energy companies, captains) will be high on the agenda over the next years.

The open discussion stimulated by the conference highlighted the need for closer cooperation between the different actors. Kockum AB is therefore planning to organize this conference on a yearly basis.

Page updated Tuesday, June 22, 2010.