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Susan Gourvenec Chairs global workshop on Safer End of Life of Offshore Wind
Professor Susan Gourvenec Chaired a global workshop on Safer End of Life of Offshore Wind, which convened more than 50 participants from across the sector and across the globe as part of Engineering X Safer End for Engineered Life mission. Engineering X is an international collaboration, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, that brings together some of the world's leading problem-solvers to address the great challenges of our age.
The Safer End of Life of Offshore Wind workshop aims included raising awareness of the importance of safety at the end of life for offshore wind infrastructure; identifying priorities, actions and key asks; facilitating new international, interdisciplinary and inter-sector collaborations between diverse stakeholder; and inspiring action now as the sector grows to address safety challenges at the end of life of offshore wind infrastructure.
On Day 1 participants undertook a deep dive into identified key topics, (i) technology & infrastructure, (ii) circularity, and (iii) regulation, to understand the challenge on each and identify ways forward. Day 2 addressed the roles and asks of the stakeholders present and the wider sector to take action on the ways forward identified on Day 1.
A diverse range of speakers across the two days covered a range of challenges and lessons to be learnt, including:
- Technology and infrastructure for safety at end of life for offshore wind - Lorna Bennet, ORE Catapult
- Circularity considerations for safety at end of life for offshore wind - Eve Andrews, University of Edinburgh
- Regulatory considerations for safety at end of life for offshore wind - Ingvild Jenssen, NGO Shipbreaking Platform
- The global dimension of end of life for offshore wind - Wangari Muchiri, GWEC
- Lessons from Offshore Oil and Gas Decommissioning in South East Asia - Professor Omar bin Yaakob, UTM
- Takeaways from the decommissioning of oil and gas fields - Callum Falconer, Decom Mission
- Examples of circularity - Dr Anne Velenturf, University of Leeds
- Blade recycling - Dr Claire Barlow, University of Cambridge
- Example of circular onshore decommissioning - Kasper Buhl Andersen, Kingo Wind
- Blade recycling and community involvement - Alejandra Fabiola Herrera García & Rachel Ventura Loyola, Siemens Gamesa
- Making the business case for life extension - Alastair Muir Wood, Wood Thilsted
- Ocean renewable energy: scale, finance and biodiversity - Shamini Selvaratnam, Ocean Conservancy
You can download the Engineering X Safer End of Life of Offshore Wind Challenge Statement and follow future outputs from the project here https://engineeringx.raeng.org.uk/safer-end-of-life-offshore-wind
The work on this topic is only just beginning and we look forward to further collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and countries to tackle the safety concerns of end of life of offshore wind infrastructure.
Find out more about the programme here https://engineeringx.raeng.org.uk/programmes/safer-end-of-engineered-life/safer-end-of-life-of-offshore-infrastructure-and-ships
Join the Engineering X Safer End of Life for Offshore Infrastructure and Ships Community of Practice https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12666066/
