A data-driven framework towards sustainable reuse of decommissioned petroleum platforms as support structures for wind energy production

Seeking offshore green energy sources with the lowest possible cost and carbon footprint, while avoiding any additional oceanic waste, is currently a major challenge. Scientists have been warning about the increase in the number of decommissioned platforms and their potential negative impact on the environment. On the other hand, the transition from fossil to green energy has become a necessity if we are to reduce the consequences of climate change. This means that more petroleum platforms will be decommissioned in the near future. DeP2WIND is an innovative project that deals with these important problems by proposing a mapping framework for the reuse of decommissioned platforms as support structures for wind turbines. The project will address the safety and maintenance of these steel structures and how to save on the excessive installation costs of wind turbines. The project will take a novel interdisciplinary and mixed reliability, optimisation and data-driven approach. Based on an assessment of the state of the decommissioned platforms as regards corrosion and fatigue, the optimum maintenance and repair actions and a suitable design for wind turbines, different outcomes will be investigated using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The fellow will benefit from the expertise of the Structural Engineering Research Group at the Department of Civil Engineering and Energy Technology at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Building on the fellow’s previous work and skills in both structural engineering, machine learning-based modelling and reliability research, the project activities will further develop the fellow’s professional and academic maturity. Furthermore, the results will have a key impact on the advancement of multiple academic disciplines, contribute to the EU’s green deal and UN policies, and help to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, by providing affordable and clean energy and improving the quality of marine life.