Offshore company Ørsted has used a transport drone for the first time to speed up maintenance work at a wind farm.
Instead of the usual six hours, the work was completed in less than half an hour. Ørsted published a video on Linkedin showing a drone at the Borssele 1 & 2 wind farm in the Dutch part of the North Sea. The device weighs 70 kg, has a wingspan of 2.6 metres and can carry a load of up to 100 kg. In previous trials, Orsted has already tested the use of models that can carry around 70 kg. It is the “world’s first” use of a drone in this segment.
Drone speeds up work tenfold
As part of a current maintenance project, “critical evacuation and safety equipment” needs to be overhauled on each of the wind farm‘s 94 turbines, the company reported. The equipment required for this is transported from an offshore supply vessel to the top of the turbine within four minutes – by air.
According to the company, its tests show that the equipment causes less disruption to work as the wind turbines do not have to be switched off when the cargo is delivered. In addition, the supply ship does not have to be constantly repositioned to reach the plant.
With the conventional system, the ship would have had to approach each turbine individually and lift the container with the equipment using a crane. In the second step, it would have been lifted to the turbine. According to Ørsted, this process can take up to six hours, but by using the drones, the tasks in Borssele could be completed 10 to 15 times faster.
