Vattenfall has placed an order with Pegasus Welfare Solutions (PWS) for the offshore wind industry’s first in-turbine toilet.
Each of the eleven turbines at Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) will be fitted with the toilet cubicle, which represents PWS’ first entire wind farm order.
The unit’s design was finalized at the end of last year in collaboration with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, which also plans to trial it at its 7 MW Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine in Fife.
According to PWS, the cubicle can be carried and installed by two technicians within an hour and it comes with its own water and power supply and takes no resources from the turbine.
“No one would accept going to a building site where houses were being built and find no welfare facilities on site, so why should there be none on a working site offshore?” said Inventor and PWS managing director Dan Greeves .
“An in-tower toilet dramatically improves safety by eliminating the number of 11-16metre ladder climbs to use the toilet on a vessel, it improves productivity by saving technicians an average of 1.4 hours a day on vessel loo visits.”
Located off Aberdeen Bay, EOWDC , also known as Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, has nine 8.4 MW and two 8.8 MW MHI Vestas turbines installed on suction bucket jacket foundations.
The 93.2 MW offshore wind farm was inaugurated in September 2018.