In mid-September, the Offshore Drone Campus Cuxhaven (ODDC) was inaugurated, operated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials Research. The ODDC aims to develop and test UAS applications to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of wind farms. A recent example of how drones are already providing valuable services in the offshore wind energy sector was observed off the Dutch North Sea coast.
On behalf of the Danish energy company Ørsted, SkyLift took on the task of renewing the evacuation and safety equipment of 94 wind turbines in the Borssele 1 & 2 offshore wind farm. The British UAS service provider relied on a heavy-lift drone, the FB3 model from Italian manufacturer FlyingBasket, for the project. Nearly 5.5 tons of materials, divided into 94 deliveries with up to 85 kilograms per transport crate, were transported from a supply vessel to the nacelles of the approximately 130-meter-high wind turbines. This method realized a significant time-saving. Previously, the supply vessel would have had to approach each individual turbine, and the materials would have been lifted using two cranes. Instead, the drone was able to service multiple turbines from a central anchoring point. The flight time was only a few minutes, while crane delivery sometimes took several hours. With up to 20 flights per day, the entire job was completed in just ten days. According to wind farm operator Ørsted, this approach was 10 to 15 times faster than the traditional method.
> This article was written in cooperation with Drones Magazin, the magazine for the drone economy. www.drones-magazin.de
