PAT18, the Spanish Association of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers’ working group on Marine Renewables (ENERMAR) closed the 9th Edition of its annual Technical Sessions in Seville, Spain, on June, 29 th.
During the two-day meeting, more than 60 professional attendants coming from industry, certification bodies, technical offices, designers, shipyards, universities environmental organizations and officials involved in the close relationship of renewable energies and marine & maritime sectors listen to and discussed with the 18 speakers and 5 round-table components on a varied array of subjects spanning all the aspects of this exciting new industry.
From early and astonishing new concepts of floating offshore wind to already installed tidal devices and pre-commercial projects and even their decommissioning phase.
The first day saw two panels made up of three speeches each.
The first one, about new concepts of floating wind and opportunities of synergies with other energy converters.
The next one, presenting current Spanish companies designing and manufacturing fixed offshore wind substructures.
Finally, closing the morning session, before leaving towards Cádiz, designers, regional and national administrations, conservationist organizations and developers sat down together and discussed on the challenges, risks, and opportunities of the Marine Renewables along the Andalusian coasts.
In the Puerto Real shipyard, we visited Iberdrola’s East Anglia One offshore wind farm’s OSS (both top and jacket), ready to sail to the site off UK shores.
Beforehand, the project manager made a wide explanation of how the electrical substation and structure were planned and executed.
The day was closed with a nice and relaxing networking cocktail on a top roof overlooking the extraordinary Seville’s cathedral.
The second day started with a panel on the maintenance of the marine plants, a key factor on their profitability and final LCOE. A couple of new maintenance strategies and approaches as well as a patent of an access platform were presented.
Fourth panel was made up of “hidden” aspects of the business (although of paramount relevance): Certification, installation and decommissioning. A stunning fact disclosed here was the size of the decommissioning business (in a not-so-distant future….).
The fifth panel introduced wave, current and tidal devices already in the prototype phase. Two of them, Spanish ones, being the third French.
Finally, the Conference came to its end with the panel dedicated to upcoming Floating Offshore Wind solutions, in different phases of their TRL ascent path: From lab tests to full-size prototypes.
The 18 speakers came from Spain, France, Belgium, and UK.
PAT18 made a special effort to include all the papers received and accepted, but it was physically impossible to put more than 18 speeches in only two days (excursions to Cádiz included). The ones that didn’t fit into the program were shown in a poster area.
Click here to see panels and speakers.
