Offshore challenges, engineering success and tapping into waste

Kicking off this Wednesday is the two-day Marine Operations Supporting Offshore Wind Conference in London.

The conference will ask: is the maritime community ready to install and service the next generation of offshore wind projects and what do project developers require from installation and O&M vessels?

The organiser say the maritime community has a crucial role to play in driving forward the development of offshore wind energy during the next decade.

Attendees will be able to explore new business opportunities, generate solutions to future installation and O&M challenges and take advantage of a wealth of offshore wind industry knowledge and expertise.

It’s one thing having the vessels required to help erect offshore wind turbines and another getting personnel to them for essential maintenance, especially in bad weather.

To address this, Carbon Trust today announced shortlisted entries into a competition to solve the problem of transferring engineers and equipment safely on to wind turbines as far as 300km offshore in wave heights up to around 3m.

According to the Carbon Trust, the project aimed to improve the economics of offshore wind by keeping turbines generating electricity in the harshest sea conditions to increase revenues by as much as £3bn.

The global market opportunity for these wind turbine access solutions is estimated to be worth over £2bn by 2020 and according to Carbon Trust research, the UK market alone could account for up to fifty per cent of that.

Click here to read more about today’s announcement from Carbon Trust and here to learn more about how the offshore renewables industry is breathing new life into the UK’s dockyards

Still at sea and news that the UK’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Group (OSPRAG) will report on its activities with a one-day conference this Friday in Aberdeen.

Speakers directly involved in the group’s activities over the past 14 months will provide a comprehensive overview of the joint approach taken by the industry and its regulators to further improve the UK’s prevention of and response to a major well control incident.

Feedback will also be given on the lessons learned from Exercise Sula conducted in May to test the UK’s national oil spill contingency plan.

Back (mainly) on land now with news of a lecture taking place today that will address the role of engineering in advancing sport.

Taking place at the IMechE’s Birdcage Walk premises in London, the presentation will reportedly explore how engineering research has been applied to sports product development.

Publicity material states: from predictive numerical modelling of sports apparel through robotic emulation of the human footstrike to experimental aerodynamics of footballs, an engineering approach has proven capable of sustained product improvement and suggested that not only can the sporting goods sector benefit from engaging with the engineering community, but that the engineering world can benefit from addressing some of the challenges yet to be resolved within sport.



The lecture starts at 1830.

From energetic athletes to energy consumption and a conference entitled 2011 Waste Strategy Review taking place in London between September 19 and 20 this week.

The organiser says Britain relies upon and consumes natural resources and non-renewable fuel at an unsustainable rate. It adds that each year 80 millions tonnes of waste are produced ‘placing increasing pressure on the environment, at a cost to consumers and businesses alike.’

Consequently, Energy from Waste claims to have seen significant growth potential in recent years as the demand for renewable sources of energy remains high on the agenda of government policies and legislation.

The conference will focus on current developments, technologies, strategies, and the opportunities & challenges facing the industry sector now and in the future, through case studies and presentations from experts.