Offshore Wind Challenges and Learning from the Oil and Gas Industry
Brain Storming Session
Introduction
Because the offshore wind industry is a relatively new industry compared with the offshore oil and gas industry, and because both industries share a common environment, it seems reasonable to assume that there will be similarities between the two industries and that because offshore oil and gas has been around longer, there may be ways in which the experience gained in the oil and gas industry can help the offshore wind industry and vice versa. In essence, why develop a technology or process from scratch, when a similar technology or process exists in another industry? Preventing the “reinvention of the wheel” makes obvious common sense.
This common sense starting point leads to a series of questions which need to be answered:
- Given that the offshore oil and gas industry is massive and diverse, which “bits” of the oil and gas industry are relevant to offshore wind?
- Are there any “bits” of the offshore wind industry from which oil and gas could learn?
- Are there any common problems which could be jointly solved by the two industries working together?
- What methods could be used to transfer knowledge between to two industries?
- If an area is identified where learning might be transferred from one industry to another, how do we make that transfer happen, efficiently and effectively?
No single source or person can answer these questions, nor is it written down in any text book, the problem is live and dynamic and ultimately depends on companies and people recognising the opportunities and generating the links and commercial deals.
To facilitate the process this part of the Power Cluster Project is generating a large mind map of both industries, in essence generating a taxonomy of each industry so that similar activities can be compared in an attempt to uncover areas of similarity and potential learning.
How Can You Help?
By contributing to the “Brain Storming Session”
The knowledge required to complete the mind map and answer the questions only exists in the people who work in the two industries. So we need your help to explore the offshore oil and gas and wind industries to identify areas of possible synergy. But it would be naïve to expect a single group of people to come up with all the answers, and we don’t expect there to be a single correct answer, at this stage in the study it is likely to be a series of suggestions and possibilities, which will form the basis of a further analysis.
So please enter into the spirit of the session, where there is no such thing as a silly question or suggestion.
The format of the event will be an informal Workshop, where you will be invited to join one of several discussion groups, but you are free to move between discussion groups, if you think you’d be more interested in the discussion in another group, or you have contributed all you can to that group.
Each group will have a “volunteer” who will take notes and at the end of the session summarise the points to the group as a whole.
The output from each group and the final discussion will be analysed and added to the mind map.
As the project progresses and the mind map and associated analysis is developed the results will be posted on the Power Cluster website and you will be kept informed of progress.
The final mind map, analysis and recommendations will be published as part of the Power Cluster report which will be a public domain document hosted on the Power Cluster website.