Engineering Certainty in Offshore Renewables: Why the Next Decade Demands a New Approach
By Andy Martin, Waves Group
In offshore renewable energy, certainty has become the rarest commodity.
Across Europe, APAC and the Americas, projects are expanding in scale and technical ambition. Turbines are larger, waters are deeper, supply chains are stretched, and regulatory scrutiny is intensifying. All of this is happening alongside rising commercial pressure to deliver predictable outcomes in unpredictable environments.
In this landscape, success cannot rely on optimistic assumptions or best-case planning. Certainty must be engineered — deliberately, systematically and from the very beginning.
At Waves Group, our perspective has been shaped by nearly two decades of supporting offshore infrastructure as one of the world’s most trusted Marine Warranty Survey (MWS) providers. Working alongside leading developers, contractors, vessel owners, insurers and legal advisors has given us a front-row seat to the operational, commercial and technical realities that make or break a project.
This deep involvement in assurance and risk management didn’t just inform our consultancy services — it built them.
Our consultancy offering is a natural evolution of the work we have been delivering for years: applying objective technical scrutiny, understanding the pressures on marine operations, and helping clients reduce uncertainty at every stage of the project lifecycle.
Over time, these strengths have grown into four consultancy pillars that consistently underpin successful offshore renewable energy development.
Strategic Advisory — Certainty Begins With Clear Direction
Many of the challenges we are asked to resolve offshore originate much earlier in the project lifecycle. Our MWS heritage has shown us repeatedly that misalignment in the early phases — planning, regulation, port selection, contracting or technology assumptions — can echo through a project for years.
Because we have worked so closely with project owners, insurers and technical authorities, we understand the early decision points that influence long-term risk.
This is why strategic advisory has become one of our fastest-growing consultancy areas.
When early-stage decisions are grounded in clear marine, regulatory and operational insight, projects begin with a level of clarity that reduces uncertainty and delivers long-term value.
Pre-Construction Planning — Engineering the Hidden Architecture Behind Success
One of the most important insights gained through years of MWS work is that offshore operations rarely fail unexpectedly — they fail predictably when small risks compound.
Weather, vessel availability, port constraints, cable routing, seabed variability and contractor interfaces can quickly become pressure points if not properly understood before construction begins.
This is why data-driven pre-construction planning has become a core consultancy strength for us.
Our MWS background gives us a technical and practical understanding of:
- how operations break down,
- which risks are underestimated,
- how marine constraints dictate construction windows, and
- why logistical decisions made onshore often determine success offshore.
By applying this insight through vessel strategy development, port optimisation, supply chain evaluation and marine risk modelling, we help clients build robust foundations long before installation vessels mobilise.
Project Execution & Management — Bringing Discipline to an Increasingly Complex Landscape
As offshore operations have grown more complex, our clients increasingly ask us not only to assure operations, but to help manage and coordinate them.
This shift has been driven in part by our work as MWS for some of the world’s most challenging offshore wind and subsea cable campaigns. Being embedded within contractor teams, offshore crews and client organisations has given us a deep understanding of how things actually work on the water — and what is needed to keep operations aligned, safe and compliant.
Our consultancy work in execution and management builds directly on this operational experience.
Clients rely on us for independent oversight, technical governance, incident response, verification and interface management — the structured discipline that keeps complex marine operations coordinated and progressing with confidence.
Performance Analysis & Optimisation — Sustaining Excellence Throughout the Asset Lifecycle
Long after a project enters operation, our work as MWS and technical advisers continues to inform how we support asset performance.
The same principles that underpin good assurance — data, evidence, risk evaluation and continuous improvement — now drive our consultancy services in operational optimisation. Whether analysing energy efficiency, assessing emissions, evaluating new technologies or enhancing navigational safety, our role is to help operators maintain clarity and reduce uncertainty throughout the asset’s life.
This lifecycle approach is a natural extension of the assurance mindset: we measure what matters, examine what can be improved, and help clients act on insight rather than assumptions.
Consultancy Built on Assurance. Certainty Built on Experience.
Our consultancy services didn’t appear overnight. They evolved organically from years of trusted work with the leading players in offshore wind, subsea cables, interconnectors, insurance and marine operations.
The experience gained through hundreds of independent assurance and risk-management engagements has become the backbone of our advisory work — strengthening the support we now provide across strategy, planning, execution and performance.
As offshore renewable energy moves into a new era of scale, ambition and complexity, certainty will define success more than ever before.
And certainty is engineered — not hoped for.
At Waves Group, that engineering begins with the insight gained from two decades of being at the front line of offshore assurance.
Andy Martin – Waves Group
