GLWN attends major offshore conference in Bremerhaven, Germany

As part of GLWN's continuing efforts to broaden its knowledge and reach in the area of offshore wind development, the group sent Patrick Fullenkamp, director of technical services, to Bremerhaven, Germany in June to visit some of the world's most notable players on the manufacturing, development, installation and logistics ends of this highly specialized energy sector.

As one of the worldwide leaders in renewable energy, Germany's success is driven by a national policy that mandates 35 percent renewable electrical generation capacity by 2020. Further fueling this drive is the fact that the country has formally announced plans to abandon nuclear energy altogether and will shut down its ten existing nuclear power plants by 2022. In essence, Germany is putting all its eggs into wind, solar and natural gas in a broad-stroke effort to reduce carbon emissions through the use of renewable energy resources. And its various offshore wind projects have become instrumental in achieving this goal.

As a result of these efforts, wind power in Germany has quickly become a burgeoning industry that currently provides more than 70,000 people with jobs.

Fullenkamp's mission was to observe the industry -- and its planned 50 wind farms slated for the North Baltic Sea -- via various plant tours and the on-site examination of various ports, storage, transportation and other vital infrastructure that has been set up to handle the demands related to offshore wind development.

His trip began at the Bremerhaven Offshore Wind Conference, an international showcase of Germany's expansion into the offshore wind industry and its effects on the many facets that support the industry, including logistics, service, maintenance and operations. The conference offered a wealth of information on Germany's progress in offshore developments, keying on discussions regarding towers and blades, foundation fabrication, vessel manufacturing, transport vessels and installation vessels specially built with high-tech wave compression systems.

Fullenkamp reported that one contact, Jack Spaan of Dutch heavy lift shipping company Jumbo Offshore, stressed that when dealing with offshore developments, the devil is in the details. Spaan emphasized that logistics take precedence over technical details and that his company has learned a lot from knowledge sharing with the oil and gas industries, in that they are learning from each other's mistakes. Spaan concluded that his company's success was based on three principles: Perform (learn), Cooperate (share) and Voice (communicate).

One major piece of advice that Fullenkamp walked away with in regard to offshore logistics was to get as much of the project completed onshore as possible. This business model defined the German offshore industry and resulted in past projects being consistently completed on time and under budget.

In comparison to the United Kingdom (which maintains 40 percent of the offshore wind farms but utilizes just five percent to ten percent of its supply chain), Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark have been more aggressive in establishing domestic manufacturing to supply products for the offshore wind industry. Germany, for instance, relies on domestic support for roughly 70 percent of its supply chain content.

One source from the UK summed up his country's sluggish offshore wind movement by commenting that the UK is spending way too much time talking and debating rather than doing. Germans, on the other hand, are very committed. They talk, then plan, then execute. There are no long-winded debates that impede progress. And as a result, they've become a worldwide leader in renewable energy, and the "go-to" resource in Europe for offshore wind development.

Fullenkamp's opinion is that, because of this, Germany is about ten years ahead of the United States in developing reliable wind energy sources (especially in the execution and optimization phases), while the U.S. is still struggling to get past the policy, planning and evaluation phases. From an offshore standpoint, Germany has been successful at taking brownfield sites and transforming them into productive port locations that support the auto industry (and the country's lucrative export business) as well as the offshore wind industry (with its storage, rail and waterway access).

The future looks promising for offshore wind in the U.S., according to Fullenkamp. What's needed (and this may sound like a broken record) is a commitment on domestic policy and volume. Once there's a commitment to offshore farms, he maintains, we'll see more participation from OEMs. And once projects get approved, we'll see component manufacturers seeking out manufacturing sites close to the water's edge.

If you would like to learn more about Patrick Fullenkamp's trip, including contact information of the industry experts he spoke with, feel free to drop him a line at pfullenkamp@glwn.org or call (216) 920-1956.