The work on the vertical lay-up machine (VLM) for JDR’s new cable manufacturing unit within the UK is now nicely underway in Klaipeda, Lithuania, the place Norway-headquartered PASSER Group lately opened a brand new fabrication facility. The Group has revealed that, moreover increasing its manufacturing capability, it is usually wanting into areas for future enterprise growth, with floating wind being considered one of them, primarily because of the capabilities at PASSER SIDC in Lithuania.
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Orders in renewable vitality, together with offshore wind, and interconnector markets now account for over half of PASSER’s turnover, PASSER Group’s Enterprise Growth Director, Espen Brudal, mentioned in an interview with offshoreWIND.biz.
Klaipeda-based PASSER SIDC witnessed a 30 per cent progress in 2023, principally on account of PASSER Merchandise rolling out the vertical lay-up machine and the market beginning to growth by way of deliveries of different merchandise comparable to smaller carousels, reels and transportation baskets, in line with PASSER SIDC’s CEO, Aivaras Kamas.
The Group’s portfolio of firms spans past the manufacturing of cable manufacturing and dealing with gear and contains shipbuilding and vessel design, fabrication of metal buildings, in addition to engineering and mission administration. Having a multidisciplinary setup additionally allows each the Group and a single firm inside it to supply one-stop-shop options, Brudal and Kamas identified.
“Our vary of merchandise stretches throughout a number of areas, from gear for cable manufacturing and dealing with to the whole lot that has to do with metal – and now we have full welding certification so we will ship the very best commonplace potential on this regard,” Aivaras Kamas mentioned.
“On the subject of our capabilities, right here too we’re in a position to cowl the total vary, from engineering, mission administration, fabrication, set up, to ultimate documentation and commissioning.”
Kamas additional added that being a part of the PASSER Group offers PASSER SIDC the benefit of getting the total worth chain underneath one roof, which ensures offering the very best high quality potential.
“Following mechanical set up, we’re now including E&I to our providing, so the total scope shall be in-house. By not relying on exterior suppliers and having full management over issues comparable to supply phrases, we will mitigate delays that had been beforehand not underneath our management and higher coordinate on executing our contracts extra effectively.”
Vertical Lay-Up Machine for JDR’s New Cable Manufacturing facility Taking Closing Form
For the time being, PASSER is engaged on the manufacturing of the vertical lay-up machine (VLM) for JDR Cable Programs’ new subsea cable manufacturing facility in Blyth, UK.
JDR is constructing the brand new plant to have the ability to meet an anticipated enhance in demand for high-voltage cables in the midst of the last decade, the cable producer mentioned in November 2023, when the corporate introduced that each one piling for the foundations of the VLM and steady catenary vulcanisation towers (CCV) had been accomplished.
As soon as operational, the manufacturing unit will change into the one facility within the UK able to full start-to-finish manufacturing of high-voltage subsea cables, in line with the corporate.
At PASSER, the vast majority of the job of fabricating the vertical lay-up machine for JDR’s new manufacturing unit has been assigned to the fabrication facility in Klaipeda, Lithuania, which formally went into operation in October 2023.
The brand new workshop has been constructed to A+ vitality class, with vitality effectivity and metallic mud collectors and different filter methods in place, and photo voltaic panels deliberate to be put in sooner or later.
The goal for the workshop in Klaipeda from the beginning was to make it as ‘inexperienced’ as potential, as a part of PASSER’s technique for decarbonisation and the Group’s ESG targets.
The Lithuania-based firm is about to start out its ESG reporting in 2025, nevertheless it already started with some actions final yr. Group-wide, PASSER is at the start of its ESG reporting journey and is at present organising a system to embody all its firms and worth chains in a single place.
“That is the problem of being a world group. We have to align with native laws and necessities which aren’t essentially the identical throughout all of the areas the place our firms are, comparable to Lithuania, Norway, and the Netherlands. We have to embrace all of the native necessities, ’pulling the whole lot collectively into one system and that’s what we’re at present engaged on,” mentioned Espen Brudal, Enterprise Growth Director at PASSER Group.
Offshore Wind, Interconnector Market Progress Driving PASSER’s Capability Growth
The choice to construct the brand new environmentally pleasant workshop in Klaipeda got here as the necessity to arrange giant sufficient in-house fabrication capability arose, which was additionally pushed by the numerous enhance in offshore wind, different renewable vitality, and interconnector initiatives, in line with Brudal.
With the brand new facility, PASSER went from 2,000 sq. metres to round 7,000 sq. metres of area to deal with its fabrication capability.
“One of many major drivers is definitely the growing demand within the subsea cable market, together with interconnector and offshore wind industries that are seeing unprecedented progress. In offshore wind, wind farm improvement is ramping up with ever-increasing capacities. We see increasingly demand for longer and bigger cable,” Espen Brudal mentioned.
Now that cable producers must broaden their capacities, many are at present constructing new subsea cable crops. As they broaden their capacities, PASSER additionally must comply with swimsuit because the requirement for cable manufacturing gear, in addition to that for cable dealing with and storage merchandise, grows along with the market.
“Because the demand within the cable market continues to extend, cable manufacturing crops see that they should broaden to fulfill the demand. With the vitality transition underway and bold nationwide targets, cable producers are additionally pressed to the max and are promoting cables out of factories they haven’t constructed but,” Brudal mentioned.
“This contains offshore wind in addition to interconnector initiatives since there at the moment are many cross-border connection plans, and there are additionally different vitality markets in demand of subsea cables.”
The market state of affairs mixed with PASSER’s product portfolio makes the Group nicely set to fulfill the upcoming demand, in line with Espen Brudal.
PASSER SIDC in Exploratory Talks with Floating Basis Tech Developer
Along with interconnectors and fixed-bottom offshore wind, the longer term progress of floating wind can be anticipated to additional enhance the cable demand and subsequently the requirement for cable manufacturing capacities.
For floating wind, PASSER Group says it isn’t solely well-positioned to ship its present cable dealing with and manufacturing gear – but additionally mooring transportation options by tapping into the Group’s expertise with serving the FPSO market.
The shift from offering mooring rope reels for FPSOs to reels for floating wind mooring ropes requires some improvement since floating wind generators to be put in in deeper waters shall be secured to the seabed by for much longer mooring traces, so the fee effectivity of manufacturing the reels and the transportation to farther areas comparable to Asia must be labored on.
However, this isn’t the one floating wind space which PASSER has its eye on, because the Group can be wanting into leveraging its capabilities to construct floating wind foundations.
PASSER SIDC’s CEO Aivaras Kamas revealed the corporate is at present in exploratory talks with Gazelle Wind Energy, the Eire-based developer of a hybrid modular floating wind platform.
Kamas didn’t disclose any additional particulars in regards to the collaboration with the floating wind tech developer, saying the businesses are in an early talks stage.
“We’ve been working in shipbuilding and constructing metal buildings for a fairly very long time, so we’re in a position so as to add building of metal floating wind foundations by constructing upon these capabilities,” Aivaras Kamas mentioned.
Talks Additionally Underway for Hydrogen-Powered Offshore Wind Farm Service Vessel
PASSER’s firm in Klaipeda can be in talks with a possible consumer for its clear fuel-powered vessel particularly designed for the servicing of offshore wind farms.
The zero-emission vessel is designed for the transport of personnel, spare elements and elements required throughout the upkeep, restore or set up actions at offshore wind farms.
Kamas left the potential consumer unnamed however offered just a few particulars in regards to the new vessel, whose idea design the corporate launched in 2021.
The brand new design is an improve to the corporate’s vessel designed for oil spill restoration and fish farming, with the hull and the bow of the vessel redesigned and different capabilities added to allow it to serve the offshore wind business.
The service vessel might be powered by hydrogen or methanol and likewise contains further electrical energy turbines which can be utilized within the instances of excessive vitality demand.
