A document published on Wind Energy Update’s website on offshore wind risk mitigation attracted record interest over the last week and clearly demonstrated the need for information on past and present risk factors in the offshore wind business.

Five days after its publication the offshore wind risk mitigation document was seen by professionals from market giants of the calibre of Dong, E.On, Iberdola, Eneco, Centrica, RWE Innogy, SSE, Statoil, Vattenfall, Siemens, EDF Energy and many more.

“This huge interest which comes as a surprise even for us and means we’ve hit a high priority industry topic’’ says Tom Evans, MD, Wind Energy Update. “The main task now is to understand the reason behind this outstanding interest’’ Evans adds.

Two factors appear to have had a crucial impact on the search for information in the offshore wind industry: the lack of industry experience and the need to reduce cost. With more projects now moving into deeper waters (22.8m average water depth and 23.4km average distance to the shore) uncertainty around what can go wrong have increased significantly.

Despite the numerous similarities, the oil and gas industry cannot serve as a sufficient source of information on how to minimise equipment damage or how to overcome the shortage of installation vessels when it comes to offshore wind.    

This has had a direct impact on the insurance cost which can reach up to 20% of the total budget if the project is considered to have a high risk profile. The introduction of efficient risk management strategies is the only way to achieve sustainability in the offshore wind sector at the moment.

“In the future, only those willing to take and able to manage offshore risk will be able to build profitable offshore wind farms’’ says Felix Würtenberger, the Director of Commercial Steering BU Offshore Wind Projects from Vattenfall Europe Windkraft GmbH. This clearly means that effective risk management does not result only in cost reduction but also in successful project commercialisation.

To give platform for knowledge and experience exchange, Wind Energy Update has launched its first offshore wind risk summit (Hamburg, June 19-20). This business to business meeting is specifically designed to provide critical information on the most urgent offshore wind risk matters and to introduce the leading names in the field of risk assessment and management. With speakers from companies like Statkraft, Vattenfall, RWE Innogy, Siemens, Acciona, Swiss Re, Fitch Ratings and many more the summit is a must attend industry meeting for Risk Managers, Financial Directors, Projects Managers, Insurers and other professionals involved with risk matters in the offshore wind industry. 

For more information please visit www.windenergyupdate.com/risk

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Teodora Todorova
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