Marine Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) removal for offshore wind farms
The iX programme, delivered by the KTN and supported by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, is working alongside Hartley Anderson to identify innovative solutions to marine UXO clearance. Hartley Anderson, under a contract from BEIS, is looking for solutions that can increase safety, reduce impact on marine mammals and reduce the time taken to remove UXOs from the seabed.
Opportunity
Challenge opens
31/01/2022
Challenge closes
18/03/2022
Benefit
Commercial opportunity to demonstrate a technological solution for clearing unexploded ordnance in the marine environment. Applicants are competing for access to demonstration space at a flooded quarry with explosive test devices, funded by BEIS. Opportunity allows applicants to showcase their capabilities to offshore wind farm developers, which are ultimately looking for a solution.
Background
Hartley Anderson is one of the UK’s leading independent environmental consultancies. They support regulators, offshore industries and conservation bodies. Notably, it is contracted to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to deliver Strategic Environmental Assessments for aspects of the UK’s marine energy plans and programmes.
There are millions of tonnes of unexploded ordnance UXOs in the seas around the UK and in particular the North and Baltic seas, much from the two World Wars. It was an established practice for many years, for marine industries with a small or linear footprint (e.g. Oil and Gas, Marine cable laying) to detect and then avoid UXOs in developments of the seabed. UXO clearance activities come with a financial cost, potential harm to offshore workers and can cause injury or mortality to marine life such as diving birds and marine mammals.
The offshore wind industry is growing at a rapid rate, with the UK leading the global market by installed capacity (10.46 GW across 40 sites), with ambitious targets set for over 40GW of capacity by 2030. Sites are getting larger and require greater areas of seabed. For example, Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea is currently under development and will cover a seabed area of 1,114km2. UXO detection and clearance must happen at the beginning of site development and is a time consuming and costly activity.
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