Sustainable service logistics for offshore wind farms

Sustainable service logistics for offshore wind farms

Co-applicant

Subsidy from: NWO
Time period: 2014-2019
Budget : €1.25 million (RUG part: €1.1 million)

Consortium partners: University of Groningen (main applicant R.H. Teunter), Province of Groningen, DHL Supply Chain Benelux, Groningen Seaports, Siemens Nederland N.V., Van Oord Offshore Wind Projects B.V., Wijnne Barends Logistics B.V., Eekels Technology B.V., ECN, , Oliveira International Group, EYEWIND, Energy Valley, Dutch Institute World Class Maintenance.

Offshore wind farms are expected to deliver 14% of total EU electricity demand by 2030, saving 315 Mt of CO₂ emissions annually. With projected cumulative investments at €211.1 billion and expected employment at 50,000 FTE by 2030, this sector’s future looks bright. However, a 40% decrease in costs is widely considered to be prerequisite to make this happen. Considering that about 50% of the costs incurred during the operational phase are related to logistics, we aim in this project at developing new innovative methods for the sustainable design and operation of service logistics for offshore wind farms.

This project is composed of several work packages that cover network design, condition-based maintenance strategies, cross-chain control of goods flows, as well as collaboration and governance aspects. In each work package, new methods will be developed that can serve as enablers for an improved service logistics process. These methods contribute in general to the field of Operations Research, proposing novel combinatorial and stochastic optimization and improvement approaches. Extensive simulation studies and scenario analyses will be performed to test the robustness and resilience of the integrated network for offshore wind farms. The consortium includes 12 public and private partners who plan on providing practical insights, and disseminating and implementing research results.