International classification society Bureau Veritas has published a set of guidelines to reduce and manage risk as ocean engineering requirements develop in the growing marine renewable energy sector.
The guidelines, NI 631 “Certification Scheme for Marine Renewable Energy Technologies”, cover floating offshore wind turbines, current and tidal turbines, including sea and river turbines, wave energy converters, and ocean thermal energy converters (OTECs).
”The marine renewables sector is growing in importance and the complexities are increasing as the sector continues to mature,” said Matthieu de Tugny, Senior Vice President, Offshore, Bureau Veritas.
”Bureau Veritas is taking a broad leadership position in the development of cleaner energy projects and technologies in the marine and offshore environments. We are helping de-risk these projects through our familiarity with and our capabilities in offshore engineering and knowledge of environmental realities and regulatory requirements for MRE projects.”
Marine renewable projects are reliant on engineering expertise developed in the offshore oil and gas industry and this expertise is vital as world-wide interest in floating and submerged MRE applications grows, according to Bureau Veritas.
”As interest in MRE is increasingly expanding to options beyond fixed wind turbines, we are working on projects in harsher conditions and with heavier engineering demands drawing on our technical expertise,” de Tugny said.
Marine renewable energy is growing in importance around the world, Bureau Veritas said. In April 2016, this classification society issued an Approval In Principle for the WindFloat Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) foundation designed by Principle Power.