CarbonTrust
Floating Wind JIP 2018
Today the Carbon Trust published their long expected report Floating Wind Joint Industry Project (JIP) for large scale floating wind.
The stage 1 of this JIP has been performed since 2016 by a cross-industry group of developers & technology companies with a view of identifying key challenges for further investigation in the follow up stage II.
Although CarbonTrust rightfully warns not to generalise conclusions, we have tried to reflect some of the most concrete conclusions for your convenience. We advise to consult the original report to put these in perspective. The full report can be found in the Q FWE online documentation center or on the Carbon Trust website.
- Floating wind will bring considerable value to local and regional economies
- 50 MW floating wind is installed globally
- Pace and scale of large developments will depend on policy support and technological development
Electrical systems
- Introduce new techniques such as dynamic power cables
- No insurmountable
- Lack of high voltage dynamic cables
- (ER, from fixed substation to substitute does not need dynamic)
- Floating substations technology is available
Mooring Systems
- Mooring technology exists
- research into reduction of fatigue and failure
- Synthetic mooring lines need further development and qualification for long term deployment
- To be compensated by adequate design redundancy
- Opportunities for innovation and optimisation
- Monitoring and inspection procedures and technologies needed
- Research into 25-30 years operations
- Soil liquefaction can be mitigated with deeper penetration piles
Infrastructure & Logistics
- Key is infrastructure and logistic to enable serial production of 50-100 units within single summer installation campaign
- Current methods for dry dock floater assembly probably not viable for large scale projects
- In Europe port facilities too limited (water depth, crane capacity, onshore and offshore storage/docking area
- Maintenance is a challenge, both port-side and offshore
- Tow-to-port maintenance and repair are challenging in practice
- Feasibility and cost of float-to-float in situ repairs to be studied
- In situ heavy lift operations will be required unless a cost -effective alternative is developed
- Development of floating wind nearby good port infrastructure is preferred in the short term
In all, an important conclusion is that sharing experience from pilots and demonstrators across the industry will contribute to the benefit of all in bringing floating wind to commercialisation effectively.
Erik Rijkers
Comments welcome at erik.rijkers@Questfwe.com