Ørsted’s novel use of cargo drones optimises offshore wind farm operations

Ørsted is deploying heavy-lift cargo drones (HLCD) at the Borssele 1&2 offshore wind farm in the North Sea. The HLCD will transport cargo from a vessel to all 94 wind turbines. The concept was tested last year at the Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm in the UK, enabling the company to deploy the drones in an operational environment for the first time.

Ørsted is using the 70kg drones – which have a wingspan of 2.6 metres – to transport cargo of up to 100kg. For this specific application, Ørsted is updating some critical evacuation and safety equipment in each of the turbines. Normally, a vessel would sail from one wind turbine to the next, using a crane to lift each box containing the equipment onto the transition piece, after which the box would be lifted with the nacelle’s crane to reach the nacelle and then be moved to the top of the turbine. Instead, the drone will fly back and forth from an offshore supply vessel directly to the top of the nacelle. The drone flight from the vessel to the turbine takes about four minutes per turbine, while Ørsted says the conventional approach without using drones can take approximately six hours. Taking vessel transport between the turbines and from-and-to shore into account, the company has been able to complete the tasks at Borssele 10-15 times faster. Use of the HLCD also results in less work disturbance as wind turbines do not have to be shut down when cargo is delivered. 

Buoyed by the test in Hornsea and the full operation at Borssele, Ørsted is now actively seeking partnerships with cargo drone operators and services providers to help grow the supply chain.