The major component exchange market is changing. Over the last five years, the market share of turbines of 6 MW and above has increased by a factor of over five. Of the 205 O&M jack-up interventions in the first half of 2023 37% occurred at turbines with a rated capacity of 6 MW or higher. In 2019 the number was just 7%.
We have identified two main drivers behind the growing market share of +6 MW turbines:
◆ A natural increase as the number of +6 MW operation turbines continues to increase.
◆ The occurrence of repair campaigns. From 2021 and onwards more than 55% of jack-up interventions in the +6 MW category occurred as part of campaigns with at least 10 jack-up interventions.
Vessel Supply Could Become a Bottleneck
This market development puts pressure on the jack-up vessel market for O&M. There are only a handful of O&M dedicated jack-up vessels that can carry out repairs at the larger turbines.
For now, turbine installation vessels have filled the void. However, the turbine installation vessel market is also seeing high demand, so there will be little time to carry out jack-up interventions in the future. You can read more about the recent development of the offshore wind major component market here.
ZITON recently bought “Wind Energy” to strengthen its position in the market of major component exchanges at larger turbines (read more here). Likely more dedicated vessels will be required in the near future. However, we are currently seeing most WTIV going through crane upgrades to remain in the installation market instead of transitioning to the O&M market.
© ZITON- ZITON’s newly acquired jack-up vessel being transported back to Europe.
