Shared mooring systems for offshore floating wind farms: A review

Abstract

Offshore wind energy, as a form of renewable power, has seen rapid development in recent years. While fixed-bottom wind turbines are typically used in water depths less than 50 ​m, the utilization of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) becomes essential for deeper waters. Secure and effective mooring systems play a crucial role in making FOWTs commercially viable. The concept of a shared mooring system offers an innovative solution for deploying floating wind farms in clusters or arrays, which can reduce overall construction costs for large-scale floating wind farms. It is imperative to optimize the shared mooring arrangement for maximum cost-effectiveness and wind farm stability. However, implementing a shared mooring system introduces complexity to the dynamics of FOWTs, requiring the development of advanced simulation tools to meet modelling requirements. Under the shared mooring arrangement, mooring lines and anchors face more significant challenges, such as chain-seabed interactions, soil cyclic weakening, and anchor out-of-plane loading, which underscore the need for innovative, reliable, and efficient shared anchor designs. This article offers an overview of the current research status on shared mooring systems for floating wind farms, which might serve as a valuable reference for the construction of large-scale floating wind farms worldwide.