A new project in Denmark is developing a concept for wind turbine inspection and repair that employs fully autonomous drones operating from service operation vessels (SOVs), which are outfitted with charging stations for drones. The solution is said to significantly reduce downtime, CO2 emissions and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs if deployed at scale.
The project, named Flexible Offshore Drone for Wind (FOD4Wind), is being carried out by Siemens Gamesa, ESVAGT, Upteko, and the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), with Energy Cluster Denmark managing FOD4Wind.