From Pilot Projects To Bankable, Deliverable Portfolios: Supply Chain, Finance & Engineering Solutions To Deliver Floating & Deepwater Offshore Wind At Scale
One-Day, Industry-Led, Peer-Reviewed Conference & Networking Event
THEME FOCUS ONE: DELIVERING AT SCALE, SUPPLY CHAIN, FINANCE & POLICY
09:00 Chair’s Opening Remarks
Illiana Cardenes, Director of Strategic Interventions & Partnerships, GBE
PANEL
09:10 Scale The Supply Chain for Floating & Deepwater Wind
- Port and dry storage capacity remains the primary constraint on assembling floating structures and deepwater foundations at scale
- Examine the balance between local commitments and globally-competitive sourcing for large steel and concrete components
- Consider how ports can secure long-term investment certainty against short-notice project orders
- Compare the standardised jacket and monopile approach used in deepwater with the near mass production assembly floating structures require
Anders Nordberg, Head of Offshore Wind, Innovation Norway
Michelle Quinn, Director of Offshore Wind, Scottish Government
Ivar Slengesol, Steering Committee Chair, Norwegian Offshore Wind
Knut Vassbotn, CEO Deep Wind Offshore, Deep Wind Offshore
Claire Stjernfalt, Senior Contract Manager, Vårgrønn
PANEL | FINANCING FLOATING & DEEPWATER WIND
09:40 Establish what Investors & Insurers Actually Require Today To Ensure Bankability & Risk Mitigation
- Floating projects remain difficult to finance and insure while the technology is unproven at scale… so, how do we scale?
- Early and transparent risk sharing between developers, suppliers and lenders
- Consider what a genuine track record of completed projects would need to look like before banks treat either technology as an established asset class
Berna Meric Pekkaya, Senior Director, Project & Infrastructure Finance, ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
Thomas Fureder, Managing Director, Barclays
Tory Harud, Commercial Strategy Director, Marine, The Crown Estate
Georgios Kalpias, Director | Infrastructure Finance, HSBC
10:10 Bonus Session: Reserved for Conference Partner
PANEL | CONTRACTS FOR DIFFERENCE, POLICY REFORM & THE CASE FOR A DEEPWATER CATEGORY
10:25 Understand How Government Support Mechanisms are Evolving to Reflect Floating & Deepwater Wind as Distinct Technologies
- Contracts for Difference need to evolve to support floating specifically, including how reformed national pricing interacts with the existing auction model
- How is the UK’s new deepwater category within the CfD framework still being tested and understood by developers?
- Will the Government give a clear signal on pipeline and budget commitment following limited floating allocation in recent auction rounds?
- Assess whether the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan will formally include current Scotland pipeline projects
Paul Lennon, Head of Asset Development, ESB
Neils Anger, Head of EU Energy Policy , Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
Chris Fox, Head of Policy & Regulation, UK Power, Equinor
10:55 Morning Refreshments & Informal Networking
THEME TWO: ENGINEERING THE NEXT GENERATION, TECHNOLOGY, STANDARDISATION & INSTALLATION
HOW MANY PROVEN DESIGNS DOES THIS INDUSTRY ACTUALLY NEED
11:25 Weigh The Case For Standardisation Against The Risk Of Losing Genuinely Better Emerging Technology
- Between roughly twenty and over one hundred and fifty competing floating and foundation concepts are currently in development…how should we narrow this down?
- Is a neutral technical body such as a classification society better placed to assess competing concepts than any single design house?
- Consider whether the same proliferation of concepts is beginning to affect deepwater hybrid foundations
- industry should converge on to bring costs down
Hakon Opsund, Business Development Manager, Hitachi
DOUBLE PERSPECTIVE | FOUNDATIONS, MOORING & INSTALLATION BELOW THE WATERLINE
11:45 Address the Engineering Questions beneath Both Floating & Deepwater Wind That Remain Genuinely Unresolved
- The Achilles heel? Mooring and anchoring technology has received a fraction of the investment directed toward floating and foundation concepts
- Dynamic export cables remain one of the least proven elements of the floating wind system, and so one of the biggest risks?
- Exploring how deepwater foundations require subsea engineering, geotechnical assessment and installation methodology distinct from both standard fixed bottom and floating practice
- Compare installation sequencing and risk across both technologies
Filipe Aguiar, Foundations Engineer, Sumit Renewable Power GMbH
Edward Unwin, Lead Offshore Engineer, Buchan Offshore Wind
12:25 Bonus Session: Reserved for Conference Partner
VESSELS & MAJOR COMPONENT REPLACEMENT: AN HONEST ACCOUNT
12:40 Learn From A Vessel Strategy That Did Not Quite Go to Plan Before Committing Capital to your Own
- No proven, bankable method yet exists for replacing major components on a floating turbine at scale. So what are our options now?
- Existing vessels built for fixed bottom or oil and gas cannot simply be redeployed without further investment
- Hear a candid account of where a vessel or component replacement strategy fell short and what it actually costs to correct
Isabel DiVanna, Associate Director, The Carbon Trust
13:00 Networking Lunch for Delegates, Speakers & Partners
LUNCHTIME DISCUSSIONS
13:25 Facilitated Peer-to-Peer Lunchtime Discussions:
A) AI & Digital Technology:
Establish where artificial intelligence already has genuine evidence of use in offshore wind operations
B) Workforce & Skills
Address the long lead time required to build the workforce capable of delivering 2030s projects
C) Environmental Impact, Sustainability & Diversity
Balancing speed and genuine environmental protection
D) Geopolitics, Trade & Energy Security
Consider how tariffs, trade tension, and energy security are reshaping investment decisions
E) Decommissioning, Circularity & Recoverability
Discuss designing for end-of-life recovery from the outset of a project
F) Grid Connection & Hybrid Interconnectors
Clarify what hybrid infrastructure actually means across floating and deepwater contexts
G) Community Engagement & Social Licence
Examine how to secure and maintain public confidence
THEME THREE: ONE SECTOR, TWO TECHNOLOGIES, TURBINES, CONSENTING & THE PATH AHEAD
14:00 Afternoon Chair’s Opening Remarks
Jasna Culic- Viskota, Head of Transactions – Offshore Wind, BayWa r.e.
FIRESIDE CHAT | FLOATING & DEEPWATER WIND: ONE SECTOR, TWO TECHNOLOGIES OR GENUINE COMPETITORS
14:10 Resolve Where Each Technology Fits & Whether The Industry Should Be Planning For Both Together
- A live example, currently under joint venture assessment, illustrates how a single site can move between deepwater fixed and floating classification
- Consider whether floating and deepwater compete for the same sites or serve genuinely different parts of the resource
- Vote live on whether the industry should plan floating and deepwater as one connected technology pathway or two separate ones
David Kennlyside, Engineering Director, Cierco
Amy Parry, Deputy Portfolio Director, Nadara
14:40 Bonus Session: Reserved for Conference Partner
SESSION | TURBINE SUPPLY & THE OEM BOTTLENECK
14:55 Understand Who Will Actually Manufacture Turbines For Floating & Deepwater Wind Over The Next Decade
- With only one or two European turbine manufacturers are currently willing to develop turbines specifically for floating applications, how will we resolve the bottleneck?
- The exclusion of certain manufacturers on national security grounds has removed an option without yet establishing a clear alternative roadmap
- Consider whether deepwater hybrid foundations can draw on a wider and more established turbine supply chain than floating currently can
- Discuss what a realistic timeline for resolving this bottleneck actually looks like
PANEL | CONSENTING, PLANNING & THE STRATEGIC SPATIAL ENERGY PLAN
15:15 Navigate The Environmental & Regulatory Pathway For Floating & Deepwater Projects Alike
- Environmental impact assessment and habitats directive processes need integration that does not compromise genuine environmental protection
- Planning consents require flexibility to accommodate improved technology emerging between submission and determination
- Consider whether deepwater sites benefit from a faster consenting precedent given fixed bottom’s more established regulatory history
- Examine what the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan will mean in practice for live projects
15:45 Afternoon Refreshments & Informal Networking
16:15 Bonus Session: Reserved for Conference Partner
SESSION | FROM PILOTS TO PORTFOLIOS
16:30 Chart What it Will Actually Take to Move Both Technologies From Demonstration to Deliverable, Bankable Portfolios
- Draw together the supply chain, financing and engineering questions raised throughout the day into a single forward view
- Consider what evidence investors and government will need to see before either technology is treated as an established asset class
- Close with a realistic assessment of the pathway from today’s pilot projects to tomorrow’s commercial portfolios
Per Lund, CEO, Odfjell Oceanwind
16:50 Chair’s Closing Remarks