“I will say that the vessel issue is a big issue in the United States. So there’s a lot of reasons why, not just the permitting, [things] are happening in the United States the way they are,” Burdock said.
Vessel availability is not an issue contained to the US borders as it also hit Ørsted’s project in Taiwan, which will now be completed early next year, instead of by the end of this month.
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Back in 2020, Rystad Energy published an analysis that showed installation vessel demand in 2030 would be four to five times higher than in 2020.
Earlier this year, Clarksons published estimates that suggest that USD 20 billion of investment is required globally to build 200 new vessels to enable the industry to meet 2030 offshore wind targets.
Over the last couple of years, the industry has also been warning about the impending bottlenecks expected to be created by the lack of port capacity. This, due to high offshore wind targets set for 2030, is currently among the burning issues in Europe, especially the North Sea region.
During a panel session at the Offshore Wind Energy in the Netherlands workshop, organised by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy during OEEC 2023, Erik Bertholet , Business Manager Logistics and Offshore Wind at Groningen Seaports/ Eemshaven, said he sees the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC) member countries reaching less than 60 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030 instead of 120 GW that the member states jointly aim to have.
The existing target(s) are, according to Bertholet, drifting out of reach as ports will become over-capacitated and, with regard to upgrades and expansions, need strong commitments from offshore wind port users (who in turn need certainty themselves).
The average timeline of a project in the installation ports is 18 months so there is a limited number of wind farms the Port of Eemshaven can accommodate. Even with all other ports in the region that can take on such projects, there is limited capacity. There are 17 ports in the NSEC region that are suitable to accommodate offshore wind activities, however, they are not all in the same position, Erik Bertholet said.
Shortly before OEEC 2023, the offshore wind port capacity in the NSEC region was detailed in a report issued by RVO and Royal HaskoningDHV.
The report was published on 20 November following a study which found that 850 hectares are the lower end of what is needed in port capacity. According to the reports, even if all the existing port expansion plans are realised, it would still not be enough to reach even those 850 hectares to install 87 GW and reach 120 GW in seven years.
At RVO’s panel session, Erik Bertholet also noted the competition for space. He said that port owners have requests not only from offshore wind but other industries too, some of which might be more beneficial in terms of a business case, such as putting up electrolysers.
The recently issued NSEC report has, besides identifying drawbacks, listed recommendations and a set of action points that would set the region on the right path towards building its port capacity.
The nine NSEC member states are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, with the UK joining as a non-member. The member states have agreed on joint offshore wind targets of at least 120 GW in 2030 and 300 GW by 2050.
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about 2 years ago
As new offshore wind markets keep emerging and targets in established markets keep increasing, questions on how much capacity can actually be installed, especially until 2030 which is just around the corner, have come to the sector’s foreground. The most vocal on the (un)likeliness of the national a
