New UK business model oppor tunities from offshore wind ser vicing proposal

Recently a coalition of UK based t echnology developers, naval archit ects and aut onomy exper ts joined forces with Shif t t o develop a batt er y -hybrid of fshore charging vessel concept. The vessel, which could be based on a conver t ed of fshore ser vice vessel, is designed t o act as mothership for up t o six crew transfer vessels ser vicing of fshore wind fields in the Nor th Sea or elsewhere in the UK’s wat ers. While none of the technological elements included in the proposal, which range from the use of offshore charging through to batter y swapping, is completely new, they have not been combined previously However, the elements have not been combined with the digitalisation aspects of the proposals before, as far as Dr Peter Collinson of autonomous vessel consultancy Dendrityca is aware, he told The Motorship in an exclusive inter view A Japanese project is examining the possibility of offshore charging from electricity, he understands, but is not including full-electric CTVs in the project The UK proposed project specifies full-electric 15m Faraday Class SWATH e PTV by Ad Hoc Marine Designs Ltd (AHMD) The CTV design is par ticularly well suited to operating in the Nor th Sea, as its hull form is naturally heave damped, with low motions eliminating the need for gangways

Batter y hub supplying energy for CT Vs

The concept is expected to connect with a batter y recharging and recycling hub established at the por t, and would rely on the batter y-electric ser vice vessels replacing discharged batteries with fresh batteries (using a swappable batter y basis) The onshore hub would also feature a batter y container charging point “The advantage of this approach is that the offshore wind farm will be ser viced by vessels potentially operating on energy generated at the windfarm, without requiring it to be conver ted to hydrogen or hydrogen vectors, such as ammonia”

The design also anticipates that the larger mothership vessel will operate on electricity drawn from a designated charging point installed offshore at the wind farm The mothership concept is also expected to shor ten crew transfer times travelling from por t to the offshore wind farm assets, which will become an increasingly time-consuming element as offshore wind assets are built fur ther offshore

OSV for use as mothership for CT Vs

One of the interesting aspects of the proposal was that the batter y integrator in the project, Shift, proposed to offer swappable batteries for the CTVs based on a Power-as-a-Ser vice (PaaS) model. As par t of the this model, Shift would supply, operate and own the energy storage systems (ESS), the charging infrastructure and the ser vice vessels using PwrSwap

The proposal envisages developing a swappable batter y hub to supply energy to the CTVs based on a Power-as-a-Ser vice (PaaS) model Such hubs are expected to offer oppor tunities for batter y recycling as a future step

The ESS themselves would be fitted on a modular basis and provided on a subscription basis, allowing them to be easily replaced if necessar y The swappable batter y system will include Shift’s liquid-cooled IP67/A60

The PaaS system would be suppor ted by a digitalisation tool monitoring the operational per formance of the Shift system While the system will also help to optimise the deliver y of speeds, loads and navigation routes, it will also be integral to the pay-as-you-go model

Just as one contract for fleet auxiliaries does not signify a renaissance in UK shipbuilding, there is no reason that the UK should maintain its current position as a leading developer of offshore wind power assets. Both the US and the European Union have made expanding their offshore wind generation capacity by 2035 par t of their decarbonisation packets

Breaking the Autonomous Design Mould for Extend Operations

In addition to the electrification of the Windfarm CTV ser vice sector, Ad Hoc Marine Designs Ltd (AHMD) has designed a brand new 13m SWATH Maritime Autonomous Ship System, (MASS) vessel for Acua Ocean, with grant funding from Innovate UK With over 30 years of multihull and SWATH designs behind them, it was natural to focus on the superior safekeeping of a SWATH hull form, for such a small vessel, for offshore operations The objective is to use clean H2 energy and batteries to power the MASS to be self-sufficient for up to 60 days in offshore sea conditions Acua Ocean has designed the system architecture for the power and control side, and AHMD has designed this unique vessel around their system, with the given requirements The 13m vessel is classed by LR SSC rules and satisfies the MCA’s Workboat code Being of SWATH hull form, this small 13m vessel will exhibit the same motions and seakeeping of a monohull vessel of approximately 300 tonne As such this shall extend the endurance and range of the 13m MASS to operate in Hs=3 0m with minimal motions, which is far beyond existing MASS vessels This extended weather/sea window opens up the possibility of many applications for this unique design, from fisher y sur veying to bathymetric sur veying to naval array deployments etc from the moon-pool The vessel has been designed to be modular so the 13m SWATH MASS vessel can be transpor ted by 2 x ISO containers by road or air freight to anywhere in the world This opens up the other operational aspect of a MASS, location of deployment www adhocmarinedesigns co uk

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