Sep 8, 2022
Maersk and Stiesdal Offshore partner to offer solutions for floating foundations for offshore wind turbines
Maersk and Stiesdal Offshore partner to offer solutions for floating foundations for offshore wind turbines.
Maersk Supply Service is an arm of Maersk, the world’s second-largest shipping company. The deal with Stiesdal Offshore will join their joint expertise to supply integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and installations (EPCI) solutions for floating offshore wind projects on foundations and moorings.
Until 2021, Maersk was the largest shipping container company in the world before being overtaken by MSC. The shift was partly a result of Maersk changing strategy.
Maersk is moving away from an exclusive focus on cargo container shipment, instead aiming to provide integrated and complete supply-chain solutions and pursuing new business.
Maersk Supply Service is an example of this strategy. Created 50 years ago, it supplies maritime services to the energy sector. Starting in oil & gas sector, it has branched out to cater to offshore wind, ocean cleaning, and decommissioning. Its focus is to provide turn-key contracts.
Stiesdal’s path mirrors this strategy. The company was one of the pioneers in wind power in the 1970s. Today, Stiesdal dubs itself a climatic company while diversifying into hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon capture, in addition to its main arm, Stiesdal Offshore.
In the partnership, Maersk Supply Service will be the main contractor who will subcontract Stiesdal Offshore. The deal comes in the wake of the 2021 demonstration of the Stiesdal Offshore Tetra concept, a prefab floating wind turbine foundation solution.
According to Stiesdal, Tetra is the first fully industrialized offshore wind foundation. It assembles prefab modules, allowing for faster completion. Its stated advantages:
- It launches through a slip or semisubmersible barge;
- Land-based turbine installation with a crane at the port;
- Port pre-commissioning;
- Towing from port to site;
- Made from tubular modules akin to wind turbine towers, easily manufactured by experienced tower suppliers;
- Specialized versions for seabed depths from 50 m up to 1000 m.
- Scalable up to 20 MW, 275 m wind turbines.
To sum up, Stiesdal Offshore provides the tetra foundations and the related design and operation knowledge. Maersk Supply Service will provide the clients, and manage, install, and maintain wind turbines.
On a broader scope, Stiesdal’s with Maersk Supply Service may be a way to access capital to focus on the new business. The deal permits Stiesdal to lean on the larger Maersk Supply Service to find clients for its tetra foundations.
It frees managing resources to focus on expanding the new ventures: energy storage, hydrogen production, and carbon capture to produce fuel. In the future, if the new areas are successful, Stiesdal could sell integrated solutions, coupling energy generation with different energy storage and fuel production alternatives.
The merger of Tesla with Solarcity may bear some parallels. Notwithstanding the financial pressures on SolarCity as a driver for its merger with Tesla, the importance of V2X to the energy transition opens opportunities to car companies.
A car battery can be a house battery, and either can help the grid. Regardless if it’s installed on a wall or rests in a garage inside a car. A battery-producing car company can be akin to an energy utility.
Tesla’s launch of virtual powerplants in Australia and California opens a revenue source. The fact that Tesla sells essentially the same batteries for homes or cars gives Tesla two different access points to the virtual plant market.
Likewise, by leveraging its existing expertise in offshore wind power, Stiesdal may, in the future, expand its offer to storage and fuel generation for heavy transport in a fine-tuned integrated system.
