Offshore Wind Progress in U.S. Reinforces Need for ASME's Second Offshore Wind Summit This June

Next month, ASME will present its second Offshore Wind Summit — an event designed to convene industry leaders in renewable energy and offshore wind to actively build capacity and a strong U.S. supply chain. The Summit, to be held June 12 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, will feature a variety of keynote presentations and panel presentations addressing the rapidly growing field of offshore wind energy and sharing opportunities for development, investment and technology application.

Encompassing a full day of focused information and lessons learned from experienced developers, asset owners and operators in the offshore wind community, the Offshore Wind Summit will provide attendees with the insight they will need to make informed business decisions related to becoming a part of the offshore wind supply chain, developing projects, or providing engineering, construction or O&M services.

This year’s Offshore Wind Summit program will kick off with opening remarks from ASME President-Elect Richard Laudenat, followed by a keynote session featuring Danielle Merfeld, chief technology officer and senior vice president of GE Renewable Energy. During her presentation, “Renewable Energy and Offshore Wind, A Vision for the Future,” Merfeld will discuss GE’s vision for the future of offshore wind energy and technology advances that will help drive success in the offshore wind industry.

Merfeld’s keynote will be followed by a panel discussion, “Driving an Efficient Supply Chain via Regional Cooperation,” which will look at how regional cooperation between states can lead to more efficient localization of the supply chain. Panelists for this session include Liz Burdock of the Business Network for Offshore Wind; Steven Pike of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center; Doreen Harris of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; Steve Dayney of Siemens Gamesa; Carol Grant from Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources; and Samuel Beirne of the Maryland Energy Administration.

A roundtable discussion, “Supply Chain Opportunities for Contractors and Service Providers,” will then address current growth opportunities in offshore wind. The session will include a brief summary of current development projects with U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) leases, where these projects are in the development process, and the supply chain opportunities these projects are expected to generate. Participating in the discussion will be Fabian Hippe of Menck GmbH; Alana Duerr from DNV-GL; Robert Stevens of Fugro-McClelland Marine Geosciences; and William Stark from Leidos.

The Summit’s luncheon speaker, Boston’s Director of Energy David Musselman, will then outline the city’s goals for offshore wind development and energy procurement. Dominique Roddier of Principle Power Inc. and Krish Thiagarajan from the University of Massachusetts Amherst will also speak briefly about the offshore wind industry via livestream from ASME’s Offshore, Marine and Artic Engineering Conference (OMAE) in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Summit’s second keynote session, “Offshore Wind, A Vision for the Future,” will feature Walter Cruickshank, acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. During his presentation, Dr. Cruickshank will discuss the future of offshore wind in the United States, including the 15 offshore wind leases that have been approved by the BOEM.

The Summit will feature two additional panel discussions that afternoon. The first, “Using Technology to Optimize Project Design Life and Improve Costs,” will cover the technical considerations and business decisions related to optimizing the design life of an offshore wind turbine support structure, including fixed and floating supports. Panelists will include Seth Price of Principal Power Inc., Matthew Palmer and Hiram Mechling of WSP USA, Hans Petter Øvrevik from Aker Solutions, and Christian Thilsted of Wood Thilsted Partners.

The second afternoon panel session, “Exploring the Business Cases for Developers, Owners, Operators: Planning & Risk Management” will offer the business case for offshore wind from the perspective of experienced developers, asset owners, and operators, with an emphasis on lessons learned regarding key design, development, construction and operations considerations. Participating in this session’s discussion will be Alexander Thillerup from Aegir Wind Solutions, Mark Kalpin of Holland & Knight LLP, Christopher Long from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and Joshua Weinstein of Invenergy.

The Summit will also include several “Rapid-Fire Success Stories” from offshore wind industry specialists including Jorge Villalobos from Shell Wind Energy Inc., Kyle Kingman of Offshore Power LLC, and Paul Murphy of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind.

For more information on the Offshore Wind Summit program, or to register, visit https://offshorewind.asme.org.