Virtual christening of offshore wind farm simulator

The Crew Transfer Vessel is a vessel for transporting workers to offshore wind farms. On Tuesday, 31 January, the christening of this unique vessel took place. Why unique? Because it is a training simulator developed by the Gdynia-based company Centre for New Competences.

Over the next few decades, when large offshore wind farm projects are implemented in the Baltic Sea, trained personnel will be needed to support this segment of the offshore industry. A state-of-the-art simulator will help with this.

It will allow skippers delivering personnel to wind farms, as well as service technicians, rescue teams and other seafarers, to practice high-risk situations that occur in the open sea. It consists of a skipper’s seat with a dashboard and a lightweight enclosure made of durable plywood.

– With the research and development grant we received to study a model of the behaviour of skippers approaching wind turbines during their construction, operation and servicing, we built the entire programme. As a result, we will effectively, cheaply and ecologically train people already involved to some extent in the offshore industry. In a virtual reality environment, they will be able to practice dangerous situations that may occur in their everyday lives,” said Tomasz Lisiecki, president of the Centre for New Competences in Gdynia.

Małgorzata Bartosik, deputy head of Wind Europe in Brussels, the most important European organisation for wind energy stakeholders, became the simulator’s godmother.

– (…) I am convinced that it will have a broader significance for the maritime economy, because today in every industry, especially those that are highly specialised, we face a shortage of labour, and especially a shortage of well-trained labour. So if we develop a new tool that is not only innovative, but also small, sleek, lightweight, easy to use, thereby reducing training time and costs, we can expect to increase this pool of personnel that can be employed. And today, with the development of everything that is happening offshore, with the development of wind energy, all sorts of other businesses, this is one of the basic needs,’ said Katarzyna Gruszecka-Spychała, Deputy Mayor of Gdynia for the Economy.

Source: PortalMorski.pl