The North Sea’s natural conditions, with shallow waters and strong winds, make it ideal for wind farms. But, these same factors pose challenges for construction. To meet ambitious Net Zero targets, improving the speed and efficiency of installing wind farm foundations is critical. At the same time, these works must be carried out safely, without risk to workers on decks.

This episode introduces the Engineering Matters Health & Safety Gold Champion, Fugro’s VBM3000, a vertical boring machine, which is revolutionizing the process of offshore wind construction by making drilling safer, faster, and cheaper.

The VBM3000 offers a significant speed advantage over traditional drilling methods, reducing the time required to reach the seabed from 12 hours to just one hour. This is especially beneficial for large-scale wind farms with numerous turbines, where the time savings can dramatically cut down project timelines. Safety is another key benefit of the VBM3000. Traditional offshore drilling involves heavy equipment, manual handling, and exposure to harsh weather, creating significant risks for workers, but the VBM3000 is operated remotely. 

In this episode Mark Stevens, business development manager for Fugro’s Marine drilling department, explains how the VBM3000 has been deployed in Scotland, cutting drilling times by over a third. To achieve Net Zero goals and deliver the wind farms under consideration, without increasing offshore risks, developments in technology like the VBM3000 will be critical.

Guests

Mark Stevens, business development manager, Fugro

Peter Richards, chief engineer, Fugro Geoservices

The post #296 A Safer, Faster, Way to Build Offshore Wind first appeared on Engineering Matters.