Belgian firms test drones at Rentel offshore wind farm

March 9, 2021
DEME Offshore and Sabca have performed tests with autonomous drones at the Rentel offshore wind farm in Belgium.

Offshore staff

ZWIJNDRECHT, Belgium – DEME Offshore and Sabca have performed tests with autonomous drones at the Rentel offshore wind farm in Belgium.

The pilot study is said to be the first commercial, cross-border, ‘beyond visual line of sight’ drone operations at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

The partners performed tests on various use cases including search and rescue operations, environmental surveys, turbine and substation inspections, as well as parcel deliveries.

Both a ‘traditional’ multicopter drone and a fixed-wing surveillance drone, which has a wing span of more than 3 m (10 ft), were deployed in parallel. The long endurance surveillance drone took off from the Belgian coast and flew to the Rentel wind farm, which is more than 35 km (22 mi) offshore. An automated resident drone performed inspections and cargo flights from the substation and vessels. This drone also conducted a full search and Rescue demonstration using infrared detection and life buoy dropping.

The companies said their goal is to replace critical and ad hoc operations with autonomous aerial vehicles.

By combining the drone operations with the use of artificial intelligence for automatic image processing, tools have been developed to automate operations which are currently being executed by people. The companies said they believe that applications can go beyond the offshore wind industry and offers solutions for safety-critical missions at sea or above land.

Bart De Poorter, general manager of DEME Offshore, said: “We are convinced that these innovative, advanced technologies, which focus on fully autonomous operations without the need for any vessels and people offshore, have a game-changing potential to increase safety, lower the impact on the environment in the O&M phase of a project, and reduce the overall costs.

“Ultimately, we expect unmanned vehicles to contribute significantly to a lower levelized cost of energy.”

03/09/2021