Use of Floating Foundations for Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract

As the offshore wind industry develops, deeper, more challenging sites are becoming more technically and economically viable; 55% of Round 3 sites in the UK have depths greater than 40 m. As fixed foundation solutions are approaching the depth limits of their economic viability, floating foundations offer an alternative means to access the wind resource in deeper areas. The market potential of floating wind is vast, with a practical resource of ∼7000 GW in Europe, the USA and Japan alone. Despite recent progress in a handful of large-scale demonstration projects, floating foundations are at an early stage of development and, have a number of challenges to overcome before they are economically viable, and can make significant contributions to electricity demand. Challenges include the reduction of capital costs following the optimisation of platform mass against turbine size, development of design tools and standards, dynamic loading on turbines and farm design challenges which include access for operations and maintenance, construction, installation and offshore electrical infrastructure considerations.