Offshore wind turbine installation is still a maturing segment but with its growth have also emerged concerns about safety. Figures published earlier this year by G+, the global offshore wind health and safety organisation, revealed that a total of 78 vessel-related ‘high potential incidents’ took place in 2022, a 59% year-on-year increase on the year before.
The same period also recorded a doubling of incidents of asset damage, while lifting operations were the cause of the highest number of overall incidents.
New techniques and technology are making it possible to install turbines in increasingly hazardous conditions, but the ability to anticipate and react to approaching wind speeds is of crucial benefit for crane operators and lifting supervisors. It’s a challenge that Netherlands-based equipment manufacturer Huisman with the announcement of a recently developed system it calls the Wind Gust Buster.
The Wind Gust Buster provides crane operators with information on incoming winds 360° unimpeded around the boom tip through the use of a LiDAR sensor that scans the horizontal area up to 10km distance. This data is then post-processed by the crane’s automation system and available to the crane operator and other interested parties, such as the bridge.
According to Huisman it’s possible to predict a gust of window between five and eight minutes before it arrives, allowing ample time to decide whether or not to proceed with mating a blade to a nacelle.
Huisman says that the technology can be installed on newly built Huisman cranes as well as retrofitting to existing ones.
Cees van Veluw, Huisman’s product director for cranes, comments: “Right now, sudden wind gusts acting on turbine blades can pose a safety risk to the people in the wind turbine, as well as an integrity risk to the blade and nacelle. While we all get used to checking the rain radar prior to taking a hike outside, we haven’t seen this used the same way in turbine installation before.
“The Wind Gust Buster improves the crane operator’s ability to mate the blade in a controlled manner and thus contributes to safety of the whole lifting operation.”
