North Star, a leading service operations vessel (SOV) operator in the UK’s renewables industry, has activated a major industry collaboration aimed at solving one of the floating wind’s most pressing challenges: the delivery of high-performance operations and maintenance ships tailored for floating offshore wind farms.
The firm has signed memorandum of understanding with MO4, Principle Power, SMST, VARD, and Voith Group, to establish a dedicated working group of industry experts to help fast-track the design and testing of a new SOV concept.
Together, the six organisations have committed to developing a detailed, high-performance ship design to meet the needs of commercial-scale projects, such as the 17GW of floating projects awarded in the ScotWind leasing round.
As offshore wind moves into deeper waters with floating wind turbines located far from shore, the sector faces significant logistical and operational challenges that must be addressed efficiently and cost effectively.
While the industry has demonstrated the ability to safely complete transfers from traditional SOVs to floating wind platforms, there is room for improvement in transfers where both the vessel and platform are dynamic and in motion.
Commercial-scale projects provide the opportunity to optimise these transfers by enabling the development of bespoke SOVs operated under long-term contract that specifically address the local challenges and the requirements of floating wind project operators.
This collaboration seeks to capitalise on this opportunity by delivering an SOV design that sets a new industry benchmark for safety, performance, and efficiency.
North Star will lead the vessel design process, ensuring that logistics and service needs are fully integrated to meet real-world demands in the field.
Digital twin and AI decision support software firm MO4, will be responsible for assessing the workability of the proposed SOV concept, focusing on vessel motions, gangway performance, and the movement range of the floating wind turbine foundations.
Principle Power will contribute its 15 years of experience designing, deploying, and operating floating wind platforms to provide critical data on the range of motions expected from WindFloat® platforms and to define operational use cases for inspection, maintenance, and repair, ensuring that the SOV is optimised for the next generation of floating wind projects
