Offshore wind is no longer just a clean energy option — it’s fast becoming one of Europe’s key strategies for energy independence. With the EU planning to ramp up offshore wind capacity, the sector faces a challenge: how to scale up wind farms sustainably while keeping costs down?
00:00Rising from the Baltic Sea, Krieger's flak is more than Denmark's largest offshore wind farm.
00:09It's a pioneering energy bridge between Denmark and Germany, helping balance electricity prices and strengthen energy security for both countries.
00:20All while providing a clean alternative to fossil fuel.
00:25Europe seeks to secure its energy future and offshore renewables are set to play a big role.
00:32The EU member states aim to increase offshore power capacity 18-fold by 2050.
00:38But getting there will not be simple. The sector faces some major challenges.
00:44One of them, the high cost of building and maintaining offshore wind farms.
00:50We're here with Giles Dixon, the leader of Wind Europe, which speaks for over 600 companies in Europe's wind sector.
01:02Today at Krieger's flak, he's joined by several officials and industry leaders.
01:07As global tensions push Europe to stand on its own feet, offshore wind has become much more than just a clean power source.
01:17Europe needs more energy security. Yeah, it doesn't want to be importing its energy from unreliable suppliers outside of Europe.
01:29It's getting out of the Russian gas. It needs more homegrown renewable electricity like this to have energy security, which means economic security and national security.
01:42The EU plans to increase its offshore wind power capacity from 20 gigawatts today to 360 gigawatts by 2050.
01:51It's a huge undertaking, supported by major innovations and modernization throughout the sector.
01:59At the port of Esbjerg on Denmark's west coast, the control center of the Swedish multinational energy company Vattenfall manages over 1200 wind turbines across four countries.
02:13Digital tools and algorithms help optimize energy flows and address issues swiftly.
02:20Next to developing the wind farms, we also need to have the systems developed so that they can continue to support and being efficient.
02:29So an optimization of some of our processes is important for us to continue to follow the growth of the number of turbines.
02:36The offshore wind turbines aren't just multiplying. They're growing taller and more powerful.
02:45That means ports needs to expand too. Esbjerg, already responsible for shipping 80% of offshore wind power capacity installed in Europe,
02:55is now reclaiming extra land, preparing to meet tomorrow's demands.
03:02One of the challenges with offshore wind is they need very large port space and port capacity.
03:09And that's also why there isn't sufficient offshore wind ports in Europe today.
03:14We are lucky here that we have been able to develop the port in conformity to what's needed for the industry,
03:20and will also be very, very busy going forward.
03:24Getting these massive turbines out to sea takes special installation vessels.
03:28They have extendable legs that reach down to the seabed, creating a stable platform for the construction.
03:33As components grow larger and heavier, companies are investing in new vessels or upgrading existing ones,
03:40like the Wind Osprey, operated by Danish offshore services company Cadela.
03:46Captain Matthew Christie tells us his ship rarely sits still these days,
03:51moving from one wind farm to the next in a non-stop cycle of construction.
03:57Everything is getting bigger, that's for sure.
04:00More energy production, but also bigger and heavier components.
04:04For instance, we've just had a new crane fitted.
04:07It's longer and has a bigger lifting capacity because the tower sections are taller now.
04:13The specialised vessels don't come cheap.
04:16A single day's operation can cost hundreds of thousands of euros.
04:20Cutting costs is on everyone's mind.
04:22The industry's biggest meet-up is the Wind Year annual event,
04:27which this year took place in Copenhagen.
04:30Many of the innovations on show tackled harsh realities of generating power offshore.
04:35Saltwater and stormy weather constantly attack the turbines,
04:40and fixing them at sea isn't as simple as on land.
04:43Operation and maintenance make up nearly a third of offshore wind's total cost,
04:48as Simon Watson, Professor of Wind Energy Systems from TU Delft, explains.
04:54They're expensive, wind farms.
04:57The ones that are out at sea also aren't terribly accessible either,
05:01because you have to get a boat out there or a helicopter,
05:04and that's restricted to periods when it's not too windy and the waves aren't too high, of course.
05:09So that means that the cost of maintenance is actually quite a large fraction
05:13of the total levelised cost of energy.
05:15And there's a big interest in trying to reduce that,
05:17to try and make wind energy offshore more cost-effective.
05:21Could robots be part of the solution?
05:25This climbing machine is built to inspect and repair turbine blades faster
05:31and more safely than humans.
05:34Recently tested off the Scottish coast for offshore use,
05:38it was developed by Latvian company Aerones with support from the European Union.
05:44Aerones is now producing dozens of these custom robots monthly,
05:50at their Riga factory to meet surging industry demands.
05:55The largest blades in the world are exceeding 120 metres,
06:00which is way longer than this facility.
06:02So imagine to do the job by hand.
06:05So we optimise the robots for the speed,
06:08so the turbines have far less downtime while we're doing that job.
06:13Less downtime means more electricity produced and lower costs for consumers.
06:20These robots can inspect turbine blades for damage,
06:25sand the leading edge,
06:27and apply protective coatings to shield them from the elements.
06:31The long-term vision is a future where each turbine could have its own maintenance robot,
06:38keeping it spinning with minimal human help.
06:43As we progress, as the robots become smarter and smarter themselves,
06:47we try to implement different kind of algorithms,
06:50so the operator would be more like an kind of overseeing the AI engines doing the work,
06:57and just not so much being involved himself, moving the robot left or right.
07:02Driven by the innovations and policy support,
07:06Europe's wind sector is set to grow fast.
07:09By 2030, onshore and offshore wind power is expected to employ more than 900,000 Europeans,
07:17pumping over 100 billion euros into the EU economy.
07:21There's the jobs, the growth, the investment that comes locally
07:25from building and operating these wind farms and manufacturing the turbines
07:31and all the equipment and the grid equipment that is part of wind energy.
07:36Building bigger wind farms in deeper waters while keeping costs down
07:40remains a complex challenge to solve.
07:42But as Europe looks to break free from foreign oil and gas,
07:46these offshore giants could be the breath of fresh air the continent needs.
