Chapter 4
Operation and Maintenance Costs
of Offshore Wind Farms and Potential
Multi-use Platforms in the Dutch North Sea
Christine Röckmann, Sander Lagerveld and John Stavenuiter
Abstract Aquaculture within offshore wind farms has been identified as one of the
many possibilities of smart use of marine space, leading to opportunities for
innovative entrepreneurship. Offshore areas potentially pose less conflict with
co-users than onshore. At the same time, offshore areas and offshore constructions
are prone to high technical risks through mechanical force, corrosion, and biofouling. The expected lifetime of an offshore structure is to a great extent determined by the risk of failures. This chapter elaborates on logistical challenges that
the offshore industry faces. Operation and maintenance (O&M) activities typically
represent a big part of the total costs (e.g. 25–30% of the total lifecycle costs for
offshore wind farms). The offshore wind energy sector is considered an industry
with promising features for the public and private sector. Large wind farms farther
off the coast pose high expectations because of higher average wind speeds and
hence greater wind energy yield (in terms of megawatts per capital). These conditions entail additional challenges in logistics, though. One of the main hurdles that
hinders use of offshore wind energy is the high cost for O&M. The offshore wind
industry will have to solve these problems in order to achieve substantial cost
reduction - alone or jointly with other (potential) users. It is precisely the logistical
problems around O&M where most likely synergy benefits of multi-use platforms
(MUPs) can be achieved. The offshore wind energy industry is eagerly looking for
technical innovations. Until now they mostly sought the solutions in their own
circles. If the combination of offshore wind energy and offshore aquaculture proves
to be feasible and profitable in practice, there may be an additional possibility to
reduce the O&M costs by synergy effects of the combined operations. Logistic
waiting times, for example, can result in substantial revenue losses, whereas timely
spare-parts supply or sufficient repair capacity (technicians) to shorten the logistic
delay times are beneficial. A recent study suggests that a cost reduction of 10% is
C. Röckmann (&) Á S. Lagerveld
Wageningen University and Research—Wageningen Marine Research,
P.O. Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, The Netherlands
e-mail: Christine.rockmann@wur.nl
J. Stavenuiter
Asset Management Control Centre, Willemsoord 29, 1781 AS Den Helder, The Netherlands
© The Author(s) 2017
B.H. Buck and R. Langan (eds.), Aquaculture Perspective of Multi-Use Sites
in the Open Ocean, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51159-7_4
97
Operation and Maintenance Costs
of Offshore Wind Farms and Potential
Multi-use Platforms in the Dutch North Sea
Christine Röckmann, Sander Lagerveld and John Stavenuiter
Abstract Aquaculture within offshore wind farms has been identified as one of the
many possibilities of smart use of marine space, leading to opportunities for
innovative entrepreneurship. Offshore areas potentially pose less conflict with
co-users than onshore. At the same time, offshore areas and offshore constructions
are prone to high technical risks through mechanical force, corrosion, and biofouling. The expected lifetime of an offshore structure is to a great extent determined by the risk of failures. This chapter elaborates on logistical challenges that
the offshore industry faces. Operation and maintenance (O&M) activities typically
represent a big part of the total costs (e.g. 25–30% of the total lifecycle costs for
offshore wind farms). The offshore wind energy sector is considered an industry
with promising features for the public and private sector. Large wind farms farther
off the coast pose high expectations because of higher average wind speeds and
hence greater wind energy yield (in terms of megawatts per capital). These conditions entail additional challenges in logistics, though. One of the main hurdles that
hinders use of offshore wind energy is the high cost for O&M. The offshore wind
industry will have to solve these problems in order to achieve substantial cost
reduction - alone or jointly with other (potential) users. It is precisely the logistical
problems around O&M where most likely synergy benefits of multi-use platforms
(MUPs) can be achieved. The offshore wind energy industry is eagerly looking for
technical innovations. Until now they mostly sought the solutions in their own
circles. If the combination of offshore wind energy and offshore aquaculture proves
to be feasible and profitable in practice, there may be an additional possibility to
reduce the O&M costs by synergy effects of the combined operations. Logistic
waiting times, for example, can result in substantial revenue losses, whereas timely
spare-parts supply or sufficient repair capacity (technicians) to shorten the logistic
delay times are beneficial. A recent study suggests that a cost reduction of 10% is
C. Röckmann (&) Á S. Lagerveld
Wageningen University and Research—Wageningen Marine Research,
P.O. Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, The Netherlands
e-mail: Christine.rockmann@wur.nl
J. Stavenuiter
Asset Management Control Centre, Willemsoord 29, 1781 AS Den Helder, The Netherlands
© The Author(s) 2017
B.H. Buck and R. Langan (eds.), Aquaculture Perspective of Multi-Use Sites
in the Open Ocean, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51159-7_4
97