FLOATING OFFSHORE WIND: INSTALLATION, OPERATION & MAINTENANCE CHALLENGES
Floating offshore wind is a rapidly growing segment in offshore renewables, opening up many new sites and opportunities for the wind industry. However, floating wind faces a similar "triple challenge" (as shown in our figure here) as many offshore renewable technologies in order to achieve a competitive cost of energy. The first generation of floating foundations have been deployed and demonstrated at full scale with a large proportion of the design focus centered on the stability of the platforms (benefiting efficiency, availability and to an extent reliability). The next phase is to work on the other aspects of this triple challenge to achieve improvements in the cost of energy.
Blackfish have compiled a report assessing the challenges facing floating offshore wind in terms of installation, operations and maintenance (the OPEX side of the triangle) as we see this as the next significant technical hurdle in proving the commercial viability of floating offshore wind farms.
The report covers the following areas making some recommendations for future work regarding floating offshore wind foundations:
Towing
Mooring Connection
Electrical Connection
Maintenance
Decommissioning
Download the full report for more details.
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