While the importance of renewable energy technologies is widely recognised, the ability to scale up production and make it economically viable remains a challenge. The green transition, whether it is solar, wind, hydro, hydrogen etc, hinges on the ability to manufacture these technologies at scale and competitive costs.

The Nordic countries and the rest of Europe is expected to build offshore wind turbines providing more than 500 GW of energy in the next years. This will require heavy investment and the build-up of heavy steel manufacturing sites to meet the demand and the production frequency required. Up to now Europe has been dependant of Asian production capacity when it comes to ships and offshore steel constructions. In the planned rapid scale-up of offshore wind parks around Europe is not feasible nor sustainable enough to produce and transport high numbers of heavy steel units, and we are still dependent on transporting them halfway around the world.

In other words, the European structure suppliers need to become competitive not only to face the Asian steel production dominance, but also to contribute to the reduction of the green energy production cost, which today is comparatively higher than traditional energy sources. To do so, digitalisation, data-driven production processes and robotisation are a necessity to enhance productivity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

Goodtech is today responsible for setting up the new fully automated and robotised steel production facility at Aker Verdal using digitalisation as a driving factor. This will, at completion, enable Aker to deliver cost-efficient sub-structures for offshore wind in an industrialised scale not seen in this type of industry before. By utilising automation, robotics and AGV’s in all areas of their steel structure manufacturing, higher precision, faster, and increased production is achieved.

A data-driven production includes the collection, analysis, and utilisation of data to drive the decision-making and further optimise the manufacturing processes. By leveraging advanced technologies, operations are streamlined, and resource use optimised. The result will be decreasing units cost curves that will be hard to compete against, and crucial for the long-term success and sustainability of European Offshore Wind industry.

The offshore wind market in Europe the next 4-5 years will require more than 200 billion Euros in total investments, in which production of foundations will be a substantial part. Goodtech, with partners, aim to be one of the companies that can provide digitalised production technology for developers and yards going after this market. “We are motivated to take our part in the green energy transition”, says Magrethe Hauge, CEO of Goodtech.

About the company

Goodtech is a Nordic independent system integrator focusing in delivering automation, robotisation, digitalisation and electrification to the industry with the ambition of “Shaping the future of industrial excellence in a dynamic and digital world.