In order to prevent collisions with offshore wind turbines, a kind of crash barrier could possibly be constructed at sea. The MARIN institute (Maritime Research Institute Netherlands) in Wageningen is today conducting an experiment with three possible future systems, in an ‘offshore basin’ in Wageningen. The test stems from the ship accident Julietta D last January.
This ship drifted in a storm in the North Sea and collided with a tanker, a transformer platform and a wind turbine foundation. New research shows that such an incident can happen several times a year, given the sharp increase in the number of wind turbines. According to MARIN, about 2,500 wind turbines will be added to the North Sea by 2030. The cabinet makes today more famous on the future of offshore wind energy.
At the moment, more than eighty ships a year are already drifting, says Yvonne Koldenhof of the Wageningen research institute. Not always when ships become out of control, this leads to an accident, she says. “But our research commissioned by the Dutch government shows that in 2030 a ship may hit or drive into a windmill 1.5 to 2.5 times a year. Such an accident can have major consequences.”
Artificial current and wind
For example, windmills can fall on a ship as a result of a collision and cause damage to the ship, the windmill itself and the environment. The ship’s crew is also at risk in such an accident.
There is still a lot of space at sea, but that space will quickly become smaller if more wind farms are built. That increases the risk of accidents.
Experts have therefore devised three safety systems. In the offshore basin, a large container with water, a model ship floats and windmills have been placed in the water. Waves, currents and wind are ‘turned on’ to test the systems. One set-up involves a line of buoys, anchored to the seabed, which acts as a kind of crash barrier to prevent a ship from ending up between the windmills.
A second system is a net that is suspended between fixed poles and can stop ships. And a final method is a hook line that can catch the anchor of a ship that has fallen out of control under water. The three solutions have been built on a smaller scale for research in the offshore basin.
This is what it will look like:
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