Page 4 - AsiaElec Week 06 2023

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

Asian offshore wind facing

shipping crisis

With demand far outstripping supply, Asia’s wind giants are desperate for
installation vessels and accompanying CSOVs

ASIA AS an increasing number of Asian countries But with Asia being the region predicted to add
push ahead with large-scale offshore wind pro- more offshore wind capacity than anywhere else on
WHAT: Asian jects, more and more are being hamstrung by a the globe over the next few years, solutions are needed
offshore wind installation lack of shipping options to help with transporta- sooner rather than later.
limited by lack of vessels tion and installation needs. At the start of 2023, globally renowned ship bro-
Of primary concern is the ever increasing size ker Clarksons in London estimated there were only
WHY: of turbines and blades needed for wind farms in around 10 turbine-installing vessels in operation
Ship building orders waters off north-east Asia’s big wind installers; worldwide after discounting Chinese-owned ships.
failing to keep up with Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, and to a lesser Usually these are accompanied by commissioning
demand extent China. service operation vessels (CSOVs), of which there are
In turn bigger is not always better, with the thought to be in the region of 40-50 vessels currently
WHAT NEXT: result being an unintended shortage of ves- operational.
Specialised vessel sels large enough to help transport the latest The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC)
orders needed to prevent machinery into place. reports China is in possession of over 80 ships capable
slip back into coal This is leading to more and more oil trans- of wind turbine installation, although the majority of
dependency porters and even oil rig supply vessels being these are understood to be of limited size and incapable
rigged up to help the renewables industry, of erecting the mega-turbines Beijing intends to put in China is in
according to sources. place in the future.
Addressing the issue earlier in the month, Many are reported as having started out life as small possession of
Marco Polo Marine chief executive officer of to mid-sized oil tankers, and even tugs. over 80 ships
shipyards Sean Lee said: “specialised vessels are As such, demand for both purpose-built, large-
going to be in demand for projects in Taiwan scale turbine installation vessels, and specialist CSOVs, capable of
and South Korea.” is high.
Just this week Taiwan completed the instal- At a normal offshore installation site the turbine wind turbine
lation of 47 offshore turbines at its Formosa 2 installation vessel would employ huge cranes onboard
project in the Taiwan Strait, a 376-MW wind to lift the turbines and blades into position, with the installation.
project in the waters off Miaoli County in the accompanying CSOV offering adjustable platforms
north of the country. which then provide engineers access to blades as they
Two weeks earlier, China announced a tur- are being installed.
bine described in media around Asia as being a By 2030, though, installer demand is forecast
feat of extreme engineering. to outpace supply by up to 15 vessels, Clarksons
Said to stand as high as a 70-story building says.
when complete, with 140m long blades capable CSOVs will face a similar if not more serious
of sweeping across an area equivalent to a dozen shortfall, and with the total of offshore floating wind
American football fields, it will be the largest installations expected to reach almost 28 GW by the
wind turbine yet constructed anywhere in the mid-2030s, the problems faced today will only get
world. bigger.
“There will be more and more projects com- Current floating offshore wind capacity tops out at
ing up, and a big wave of them in Japan from a mere 0.1 GW installed..
2028,” the Marco Polo CEO added.
Passing the buck
Referendum ignored According to Bloomberg New Energy
The problem now, for many Asian developers, is a Finance (BNEF) analyst Luisa Amorim, “(If)
dire lack of seaworthy vessels large enough to transport new investment in offshore wind vessels is
turbines and accompanying blades to offshore sites in delayed, then [this] could affect develop-
some of the roughest waters on the planet. ment time lines for wind farms globally. The
Reports across Asia continue to point to shipbuild- current global vessel supply is insufficient to
ers failing to keep up with demand for ever-larger ves- meet the demand for installation vessels for
sels to carry these examples of “extreme engineering.” both offshore wind turbines and bottom-fixed

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 06 08 •February•2023