The UK Government has allocated funding to a consortium to develop a low carbon installation vessel for the floating offshore wind market.
Led by Morek Engineering, the consortium, including Solis Marine Engineering, Tope Ocean, First Marine Solutions and Celtic Sea Power, secured the funding through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.
The project aims to address the installation requirements of floating wind farm moorings and foundations and align with the objectives of the UK maritime decarbonisation agenda.
The vessel design will undergo a feasibility study to meet the emerging global floating offshore wind sector’s needs, aiming to set a standard for environmental performance in offshore wind construction and maintenance.
The outline design is expected to seek approval in principle from classification societies by early 2025, to contribute to the UK’s net zero 2050 targets and support the growth of the global floating offshore wind market.
Ian Godfrey, Managing Director of Tope Ocean, said: “To indicate the scale of the decarbonisation challenge, greenhouse gas emissions from offshore wind farm operation and maintenance vessels constituted more than 3% of domestic shipping emissions in the UK in 2022.
“With ambitious targets to develop the UK’s offshore wind capacity from 14GW in 2023 to 50GW by 2050, this percentage share is likely to rise to well over 10% as this pipeline is realised through a ‘business-as-usual’, fossil fuel vessel scenario.
“So it is vital to pioneer a new approach to offshore service vessels, to embrace clean maritime and net zero objectives.”
