DEME Offshore, SABCA Sign Drone Pact

Two Belgian companies - Aerospace industry supplier SABCA and DEME Offshore - have formed a partnership to use drones for inspection services in the offshore wind energy industry.

SABCA, a leading tier 1 aerospace industry supplier and DEME Offshore, a worldwide leader in solutions and services for the offshore energy market, have entered into a partnership for the development and deployment of Unmanned Vehicles to perform surveillance and inspection works in the offshore industry.

Complementing each other’s core experience and know-how, both companies are convinced that these innovative, advanced technologies have a game-changing potential to increase health and safety of their employees, lower the impact on the environment in the O&M phase of a project, and reduce the overall costs of these operations.

Moreover, in the future, it is expected that unmanned vehicles will continue to contribute significantly to lower the Levelized Cost of Energy.

“The DEME/SABCA partnership is a powerful combination, which is perfectly in line with our permanent search for strong technology partners. DEME’s understanding of marine technology and engineering expertise is uniquely complementary to SABCA’s drone developments for industrial applications in accordance with the highest safety and security aerospace standards. We believe this partnership helps to generate leading technology products and services for the offshore industry”, said Thibauld Jongen, CEO of the SABCA Group.

“We work closely with our renewable energy customers to offer reliable and cost efficient maintenance and repair solutions for their offshore assets. By adding drone services to our solutions we can provide detailed and highly accurate inspection data, while further increasing safety and reducing downtime and costs,” says Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO of DEME.

“More accurate data results in shorter response times, better availability and a higher electricity output. Also, as offshore wind turbines are getting bigger, the industry needs maintenance partners that can follow this trend. We look forward to joining forces with SABCA and to combine our know-how and experience in the offshore renewables market,” Vandenbulcke said.