Saipem buoys investment in offshore floating wind, solar energy

By Fredrick Wright

Saipem has intensified its investment in emerging technologies for floating wind, wave energy, floating solar power, hydrogen, and carbon capture.

The company was among the earliest to anticipate developments, investing in emerging technologies for floating wind and wave energy, and more latterly floating solar power, hydrogen, and carbon capture.

One of the goals was to transfer Saipem’s long experience in managing turnkey contracts for oil and gas to low carbon and renewable energy projects.

Head of Offshore New Energies Business Unit, Mauro Piasere, said: “At Saipem we have talked about the energy transition for a long time. This has always been about making use of natural gas and LNG to transit to a cleaner world: renewables represent the end of this transition, and this is where we want to be, developing and integrating different energy sources such as wind, wave, solar, tidal.

“A number of technologies are approaching Technology Readiness Level: we think we can develop these further to satisfy our clients’ needs, but this process is also about learning the language of developers, lenders, and the countries hosting the projects,” he said.

Although the crews draw on their experience from offshore construction, “there is a large difference between installing a platform for oil and gas, a structure that doesn’t move, and installing a jacket with a wind turbine that rotates,” Piasere said, adding that the “The complexity involved requires a higher skills level.”

Offshore wind currently represents 90% of the projects the company is executing in the offshore sector as a whole. These range from EPCI/EPC jobs calling for construction and installation of large numbers of jackets, monopiles or gravity base structures for the Neart Na Goithe and giant Dogger Bank projects in the UK North Sea and the Courseulles and Fécamp projects offshore northern France.

Others are: To transport and install HVDC or HVAC and substations for Dogger Bank and Seagreen, also in the North Sea, and for the St-Brieuc wind farm off northwest France; to engineering of jackets for Formosa 2 off Taiwan. The flagship semisubmersible crane vessel Saipem 7000 is undertaking most of the offshore campaigns, supported recently by the DP heavy-lift vessel Saipem 3000.

By Fredrick Wright

Saipem has intensified its investment in emerging technologies for floating wind, wave energy, floating solar power, hydrogen, and carbon capture.

The company was among the earliest to anticipate developments, investing in emerging technologies for floating wind and wave energy, and more latterly floating solar power, hydrogen, and carbon capture.

One of the goals was to transfer Saipem’s long experience in managing turnkey contracts for oil and gas to low carbon and renewable energy projects.

Head of Offshore New Energies Business Unit, Mauro Piasere, said: “At Saipem we have talked about the energy transition for a long time. This has always been about making use of natural gas and LNG to transit to a cleaner world: renewables represent the end of this transition, and this is where we want to be, developing and integrating different energy sources such as wind, wave, solar, tidal.

“A number of technologies are approaching Technology Readiness Level: we think we can develop these further to satisfy our clients’ needs, but this process is also about learning the language of developers, lenders, and the countries hosting the projects,” he said.

Although the crews draw on their experience from offshore construction, “there is a large difference between installing a platform for oil and gas, a structure that doesn’t move, and installing a jacket with a wind turbine that rotates,” Piasere said, adding that the “The complexity involved requires a higher skills level.”

Offshore wind currently represents 90% of the projects the company is executing in the offshore sector as a whole. These range from EPCI/EPC jobs calling for construction and installation of large numbers of jackets, monopiles or gravity base structures for the Neart Na Goithe and giant Dogger Bank projects in the UK North Sea and the Courseulles and Fécamp projects offshore northern France.

Others are: To transport and install HVDC or HVAC and substations for Dogger Bank and Seagreen, also in the North Sea, and for the St-Brieuc wind farm off northwest France; to engineering of jackets for Formosa 2 off Taiwan. The flagship semisubmersible crane vessel Saipem 7000 is undertaking most of the offshore campaigns, supported recently by the DP heavy-lift vessel Saipem 3000.