An integrated value chain for sustainable and up-scaled production, transport and installation of offshore wind substructures.

The WINDRISE project will bring together leading Norwegian players in the value chain for sustainable and scaled-up production, transport and installation of fixed offshore wind substructures. In order to accelerate the energy transition and reach the national and global climate goals, there is a need for rapid and large-scale development of large offshore wind farms, with up to 100–150 turbines. The EU has set a target of 280 to 350 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050. Today, however, there is neither the production technology nor the facilities to handle a large-scale and cost-effective production and installation of large wind turbine substructures – floating or fixed to the bottom. There is currently no value chain in Europe that can deliver the required volume. Such upscaling presents significant challenges in manufacturing, transport and installation. In order to ensure feasibility, as well as to reduce costs and the environmental footprint, close cooperation is required throughout the value chain. WINDRISE will bring together leading Norwegian players in the value chain from design, production, transport and installation of bottom-fixed substructures for offshore wind to enable scaling up and accelerated distribution of large offshore wind farms. The project goal is to: - increase production capacity and efficiency by 40-60 percent - reduce costs by 15-25 percent - reduce CO2 emissions by 30-50 percent - increase exports by 30-50 percent Innovation and technology development are at the core of the project and are expected to lead to cost reductions and more sustainable solutions, as well as increased efficiency and improved service, both for the project partners and also for the industry as a whole. This will help to strengthen the Norwegian supplier industry for offshore wind, while at the same time promoting robustness and competitiveness both nationally and internationally.

The WINDRISE project gathers the key stakeholders across the business value chain of offshore wind jacket substructures to enable upscaling and accelerated deployment of large-scale offshore wind farms. The project will transform more than five decades of excellence in manufacturing and installation of O&G jacket structures (~2 pcs/year) into a new and highly integrated and sustainable system for mass- production, transport and installation of offshore wind jackets (~30 pcs/year). Such radical change requires industrial innovations within main areas such as digitalized and automated jacket design and fabrication, resource efficient transportation and installation, and environmental-friendly suction bucket anchoring, and thus enable a greener, cheaper, and faster deployment of wind substructures. Through a combined effort of industrial research, development and implementation, the partners of WINDRISE aim to: 1) increase production capacity and efficiency by 40-60% on produced tonnage, 2) decrease cost by 15-25%, 3) reduce production related CO2 emission by 30-50% and 4) increase export by 30-50%. The innovation of the WINDRISE project consists of both improved services and products along the value chain to enable the industrial transformation from one-off-operations into mass-production in a context of sustainability, including nature inclusive design, CO2-accounting, as well as life cycle (LCA) and socio-economic considerations.