Market survey of Remotely operated vehicles and decommissioning tools for the removal of monopile foundations in the offshore wind industry
The objective of this paper was to provide a market survey of existing ROVs of various types, available ROV tools and other existing tools, which can be used for decommissioning purposes, in particular decommissioning of OWTs with a monopile foundation.
ROVs can become a viable part of the removal of OWT monopile foundations, as the technology is evolving and becoming more reliable. But with the market today, the tasks of the ROVs includes mostly support of the removal process itself in guiding possible cutting tools, excavate soil around the monopile, inspecting the seabed conditions and conditions of structure, as well as to monitor and observe the processes.
Fig. 1: Inspection ROV - Falcon
The power and capacity of ROVs today are limited when it comes to cutting and lifting operations of the OWT monopiles due to the large monopile dimensions, where the scale of the wall thickness, the diameter, height, and weight, places its restrictions. However, the tools and solutions today might be scaled up in the future to assist monopiles also within the offshore wind industry.
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Contact information
Andrés Olivares, Associate Professor, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
andres.olivares@hvl.no // +4752702878