Aker Solutions ready to scale up offshore wind

Now the technology is sufficiently mature to expand from today’s small projects.

Over almost 180 years, this industrial group has sought new and efficient solutions within the energy and maritime transport sectors. The company has a long history of designing floating platforms, producing advanced and dynamic subsea cables, and realizing big industry projects.

Aker Solutions has transferred the knowledge gained in the offshore petroleum sector to floating wind turbines. It has also invested in a mature technological concept for offshore wind power via a third party.

Bigger, more powerful and scalable
A semi-submersible unit allows wind turbines deployed offshore to be much larger and more powerful than on land. Underwater cables from the oil and gas sector overcome quality problems which the wind power sector has earlier struggled with at sea.

Only a handful of relatively small-scale floating wind farm projects exist today, but the technology is sufficiently mature to scale up. Countries such as the UK, France, the USA and South Korea are showing great interest in taking a leading role in this emerging industry.

BIGGER AND MORE POWERFUL: A semi-submersible unit allows much larger and poweful wind turbines to be deployed offshore than onshore. Photo: Aker Solutions/Principal Power

New business opportunities
Customers can cut greenhouse gas emissions by utilising floating wind power rather than gas turbines on oil platforms, or other energy production on land.

Floating wind park could also open up for new business opportunities for power-intensive industries in areas such as data storage, charging shipboard batteries and aquaculture, to name a few.

Floating wind power is a global business, and future growth will be exponential. The market potential for fixed offshore wind farms is expected to exceed NOK 500 billion by 2024, and industry estimates indicate that floating turbines will be able to compete on equal terms from 2025.