Video: Offshore Wind Farm Charges Floating Boats in World First

In the Belgian North Sea, maintenance vessels can now connect to an automatic cable at a wind farm to recharge their batteries. This groundbreaking system is the first of its kind and represents a significant advancement in maintaining the environmental friendliness of electric vessels.

Belgium’s Nobelwind wind farm, operational since 2017 and featuring 50 turbines across 19.8 square km (7.6 square miles) at sea, now hosts the new charging system. This facility, the third deployed by the Parkwind company, provides power to around 190,000 households.

Nobelwind’s New Offshore Charging Station

Moreover, a crew transfer vessel (CTV) transported Nobelwind’s new charging station 47 km (29 miles) offshore, where the substation crane assembled it among the sea-based wind turbines. Once installed, it successfully charged one of the company’s CTVs. Parkwind reports the transfer was seamless, with no disruption to the facility’s operations.

As demonstrated in the following video, which tests a land-based module earlier this year, the entire process is fully automated. This innovation removes the need for crew members to connect or disconnect the charging tether, thereby enhancing the system’s safety.

Commitment to Sustainability

“We are committed to making all our operations as sustainable as possible, and this innovation is a game changer for our maintenance vessels.” They can now directly access green energy from our wind turbines while performing their tasks,” said Kristof Verlinden, head of operations and maintenance at Parkwind. “The trial demonstrated that the system can safely transfer electricity from a wind farm to the vessels without any disruption to the farm.”

Currently, the charging station can deliver up to 2 MW of power to CTVs and up to 8 MW to the service operation vehicles (SOVs) responsible for maintaining the wind turbines.

Parkwind states that the system can also power the electrical systems of conventional vessels idling offshore, reducing their reliance on diesel engines and cutting emissions. You can watch the system in action at Nobelwind in a video posted on Parkwind’s Vimeo channel.

To conclude, Parkwind’s partner, MJR—a UK-based offshore power and automation systems engineering company—developed the recharging module. However, MJR is currently analyzing the results of the Nobelwind deployment and using the data to develop the world’s first commercial offshore charging station, scheduled for deployment in early 2025.

Read the original article On: New Atlas

Read more: Funded: Full-Scale Self-Assembling Wind Turbine System