Causes of delay in offshore wind turbine construction projects

Abstract

This research investigated the causes of delays in offshore wind projects, categorizing, and ranking these factors using statistical analysis. The study presented was based on the analysis of 208,140 historical data points from seven different cases, investigating both the onshore and offshore on-site assembly locations. The findings revealed that the dominant delay factor is ‘planning’ at the onshore assembly location and ‘previous task’ at the offshore assembly location. This challenges the current perception that weather is the dominant cause of delay in offshore wind projects. This analysis and its results categorize and rank delay factors between on-site assembly locations, proffering a better understanding and insights into this domain. This is relevant to both academics and practitioners, not only in on- and off-shore wind projects but also in other project types handling remote or multiple assembly locations.

Keywords:

• Construction management
• delay
• on-site assembly
• offshore wind

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Jon Lerche

Jon Lerche is a Postdoc and member of the Centre for Energy Technologies (CET) at Aarhus University, Denmark. His focus is on the operational management and productivity, related to megaprojects, such as modular offshore wind farm construction and decommissioning.

Søren Lindhard

Søren Munch Lindhard is an Associate Professor at the Department of the Built Environment at Aalborg University, Denmark. He received his Ph.D. from Aalborg University in 2013, focussing on Lean Construction. Søren’s research interest includes quantitative methods in Construction Management where he specializes in statistical data analysis and stochastic process modelling.

Peter Enevoldsen

Dr. Peter Enevoldsen is an associate professor at the Department of Business Development and Technology at Aarhus University where he also serves as the director of the Centre of Energy Technologies. Peter Enevoldsen has a background in the wind industry working on innovations along the value chain. Peter Enevoldsen conducts research in the interdisciplinary field of social science and engineering related to renewable energy technologies. His research outputs are mainly embedded in the wind energy domain with an emphasis on the contextual patterns related to the development and siting of new wind projects.

Hasse H. Neve

Hasse H. Neve holds a Ph.D. degree in productivity optimization in construction from Aarhus University in Denmark. He is now a management consultant and researcher working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Denmark.

Dan Eggert Møller

Dan Eggert Møller, M.Sc. in Engineering from Aalborg University (Denmark), is a research assistant at the Department of the Built Environment in the research group for Construction Management at his alma mater, where his research is within the area of quantitative methods in construction management with special focus on stochastic process modelling and statistical data analysis. His academic background includes an M.Sc. (Construction Management) and a B.Eng. (Civil Engineering). Before earning the master’s degree, he gained professional experience within civil engineering consultancy.

Emil L. Jacobsen

Emil Lybaek Jacobsen is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at Aarhus University, Denmark. His focus is on supervised machine learning algorithms for monitoring construction projects, specifically classifying and forecasting time-series data.

Jochen Teizer

Jochen Teizer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at Aarhus University where his research seeks lean and injury-free construction work environments. He earned a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin in 2006 and a Dipl.-Ing. from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2002. He is the Director of the Construction Automation and Information Technologies Laboratory and a Vice-President for the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC). With over 250 peer-reviewed publications in books, journals, and conference proceedings and numerous academic and construction industry teaching and research awards, he also serves as a visionary and consultant in the architectural, engineering, construction, and facility management (AEC/FM) industry.

Søren Wandahl

Søren Wandahl is Professor (Docent), PhD, MSc. Eng in construction management. Søren's focus is on the optimization of construction processes. Areas of key competencies: Lean Construction, Value Management, Construction labour productivity, Innovation in construction processes, Planning of complex and constrained construction projects. He is PI on several research projects related to highly productive and sustainable construction, and is responsible for the MSc program in Construction Management at Aarhus University, Denmark.