Ørsted uses drones to services world’s largest offshore wind farms

Ørsted and its UK-based drone operator Skylift are using the FlyingBasket cargo drones to transport boxes of critical safety evacuation equipment which weigh up to 70 kg. Each box is taken from a ship by the drone and delivered to the nacelle at the top of each wind turbine at a height of more than 100 m – roughly the height of a 25-storey building.

The programme is pushing the boundaries of drone use in the offshore wind industry with a number of significant milestones – it is the largest drone delivery programme ever attempted to offshore wind sites with over 550 flights to more than 400 turbines. It is also the first time that drones have been used for such an extensive delivery programme so far from land, going to turbines up to 75 miles to sea.

Thanks to this project, more than 400 turbines will receive the safety equipment located at four of Ørsted’s offshore wind farms – Hornsea 1 and Hornsea 2 on the east coast; Walney 1 & 2 on the west coast.

The use of these drones to deliver cargo reduces costs and time as well as improving operational safety and efficiency. Drones mean less work disturbance as turbines do not have to be shut down when cargo is delivered. They avoid risk, making it safer for personnel working on the wind farm and minimise the need for multiple journeys by ship, reducing carbon emissions and climate change im-pacts.

Nina F. Le who is heading the project for Ørsted’s team, said: “Normally to deliver heavy loads like this, it would require two crane-lifting operations to get the box to the top of the turbine. It would also take three people and means shutting the turbine down for up to six hours, so we could only deliver one box a day. Delivery by drone takes no technicians from their scheduled work, we can leave the turbines running which means no lost power generation and each takes around five minutes which has meant we’ve been able to achieve up to 30 deliveries a day.”

“At Ørsted we want to use our industry leading position to help push forward innovations that reduce costs and maximise efficiency and safety in the offshore wind sector. Drone cargo delivery is an important step in that direction.

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