Floating Wind and The Installation Challenges

Alistair Morris – Offshore Wind Logistics and O&M Lead

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World leading offshore wind programmes
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The Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA)

Carbon Trust’s flagship collaborative RD&D programme
for bottom-fixed offshore wind.

Philippines Joint Industry Programme

The Floating Wind JIP (FLW JIP) Developing offshore wind in the Philippines.
The Floating Wind JIP Overcomes challenges and
advance opportunities for commercial scale floating
wind

The Offshore Renewables JIP (ORJIP) National Offshore Wind R&D Consortium
Offshore Renewables JIP aims to reduce consenting and (NOWRDC)
environmental risks for offshore projects.
Prioritize, support, and promote research and development
activities that reduce cost and risk of offshore wind
The Integrator development projects throughout the U.S.
The Integrator is designed to examine the interplay between
offshore wind, existing infrastructure, and other technologies
to highlight opportunities for innovation investment.
Floating Offshore Wind R&D in Japan
Sustainability JIP (SUSJIP)
The Sustainability joint industry programme aims to
decarbonise offshore wind farm developments and
support developers to achieve net zero targets.
 Floating Wind Joint Industry Programme
Objective: Overcome challenges and advance opportunities for commercial scale floating wind

Since 2016 > £5m 17 > 38

Driving international, Invested in R&D Industry R&D
cross-industry projects partners projects
engagement

Key research areas:

Floating wind industry partners:

Electrical Systems Mooring Systems Logistics

Turbine & Foundation Optimisation Asset Integrity and

monitoring 4
Evolution of the Floating Wind JIP

Stage 1 (2016 – 2017) Stage 2 (2017 – 2021) Stage 3 (2022 -

Feasibility of floating Technical challenges of Technology development for
offshore wind floating offshore wind large-scale deployment of
Partners: 17
floating wind
Partners: 5
Projects: 35 Partners: 17
Projects: 3
Budget: £4,119,000 Projects: 8 (currently)
Budget: £150,000
Focus: Budget: £5,000,000 +
Focus:
Undertake more detailed Focus:
Initial feasibility studies focussed
assessments of key technology During Stage 1 and 2 the technical
around three key topics: policy and
challenges common to multiple feasibility and cost reduction
regulation, cost sensitivity analysis,
floating wind concepts and to potential of floating offshore wind
and technology risk. These
support innovation to develop the were demonstrated. Stage 3 will
projects identified five critical
solutions needed for large-scale build on these learnings to
focus areas to be addressed in
floating wind arrays. accelerate the buildout of
future research.
commercial scale floating farms
2009 2011 2017 2020 2021 2022 2023 2026
 Floating Wind JIP – projects overview
Phase V
Mooring Fabrication, Major Component Stick Building High Voltage &
Dynamic Cable
2021 Redundancy,
Failure Rates
Infrastructure Exchange with Self- of Turbines Electric Equipment
Reliability & Integrity & Logistics Hoisting Cranes On-Site Fatigue

Phase IV
Wind Turbine Numerical Modelling Phase IV
Access & Floating Floating Wind Technology
2020 Availability wind yield
Generators for Guidelines & Reference
Acceleration Competition
Floating Wind Standards Platform Designs

Dynamic Export Cable

Phase III
Stage 2

Development Competition
O&M Heavy lift O&M Tow-to-Port Mooring Systems in
2019 Offshore Maintenance Challenging
Maintenance Environments

Phase II
Heavy Lift Turbine
Monitoring
2018 & Inspection
Offshore Requirements &
Operations Foundation Scaling

Phase I
Electrical
2017 Systems
Mooring
Systems
Infrastructure
& Logistics
Stage 1

Policy & Cost Technology

2016 Regulation Analysis & Risk
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Floating Wind Installation
Key Challenges
• As the industry grows and larger floating turbines are installed in deeper waters,
attention must be placed on finding practical novel solutions for their installation.

• Currently all the global installed capacity has been assembled on the quay side
and then towed to their respective site location from port.

• With larger numbers of turbines being installed any significant delays to

installation can result in subsequent impacts upon commissioning and
generation.

• The installation process for a floating turbines varies with both substructure type
Kincardine turbine tow out
e.g. Barge, Semi-Submersible, Spar and TLP and material e.g. concrete or steel.

• Addressing the challenges relating to installation requires collaboration of a

number of different stakeholders including fabricators, ports and vessel
operators.

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Floating Installation Challenges
WTG
A number of factors will be need to be considered in context to larger scale floating wind turbine installation.

Assembly port location Component location(s) Vessel requirements

Distance to project site FOWT Type Weather

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Floating Installation Challenges
Ports

• Port development as well as an understanding of future port requirements is

going to be key to address the future installation challenges.

• Trends across both floating and bottom fixed offshore wind which are likely to
have significant consequences upon port development:
• The increase in size and number of turbines will require more space for
components during installation.
• Greater number and variety of specialist vessels will be required to support
and install turbines, floaters and anchors/mooring lines.

• The FLWJIP programme is currently running a project titled Fabrication,

Infrastructure and Integrity (FIL) with aim of understanding the key fabrication,
infrastructure, and logistical constraints towards building large-scale floating TetraSpar Demo assembly in Norway

wind farms.

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Floating Installation Challenges
Anchors and Mooring Lines

• Optimising and developing the mooring lines top connection to the floater will help to
increase the efficiency during both installation and through-life maintenance.

• Currently there appears to be a limited capacity and availability of anchor laying vessels
across the market and this will have an impact upon installation.

• Increasing the understanding around mooring line development and the different respective
materials available will impact upon the installation strategy used.

• The FLWJIP programme is currently running a project titled Moorings System Redundancy,
Reliability and Integrity (MRR&I) with the aim to understand if high failure rates seen in other
sectors should be applied to floating offshore wind and how best the industry can correctly
capture and quantify potential floating wind-specific failure within project planning.
Hywind Scotland

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Stick Building of Turbines On-Site (SBOS) Project:
Overview

• Floating wind turbine generators (WTGs) can be assembled both at port, or

at the wind farm site. The assembly location can be seen to be influenced by
a number of factors, including the foundation type and the port
specifications.

• The aim of this project was to identify and assess the innovative methods to
permit WTG assembly at floating offshore wind farm sites.

• The project has looked to identify enabling technologies that allow for
assembly and installation of WTGs on-site using a floating installation
vessel. As well as the required operational procedures for stick-building on
site.
Kincardine turbine installation

• It has helped understand the different installation methods that can be used
for floating WTGs in context to their versatility and potential to reduce costs.

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Stick Building of Turbines On-Site (SBOS) Project:
Summary

WP1 Technology WP2 Scenario WP3 Installation WP4 Hydrodynamic WP5 Conclusions &
Identification Definition Methodology Modelling Recommendations

Three geographical locations were selected for Floating-to-Floating WTG Installation

1. Narbonne, France
Monohull installation, shuttling components Benign Weather

2. Strait of Taiwan
Semi submersible crane vessel installation
Moderate Weather
with one critical lift, shuttling components

3. Morro Bay, US
Complete installation solution using an
installation vessel, feeding components Harsh Weather

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Stick Building of Turbines On-Site (SBOS) Project:
Summary
Hydrodynamic
• Five installation scenarios for floating-to-floating WTG installation were analyses
developed. The installation scenarios consisted of the following activities:

• Onshore preparation – which considered the component load out at Static models
marshalling facility
• Transport – which considered the deck layout, transit route and duration
Dynamic
• Offshore installation – which considered the load in, WTG assembly and Analyses
WTG installation (frequency
domain)

• For the five installation scenarios the different transportation and installation Limit
steps were identified. With a specific focus on lift-off, hoisting and set-down. Definition

• As part of the installation scenario development the operational steps and Operability
durations were defined which helped to identify the most critical steps for
hydrodynamic analysis.
Workability
• Three installation scenarios were then shortlisted based upon the clearances
and modelled through hydrodynamic analysis to assess their respective
operability and workability.
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May 2018 June 2020 June 2021 July 2021 July 2022

@The Carbon Trust #The Carbon Trust www.carbontrust.com

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Thanks for
listening
Alistair Morris
alistair.morris@carb ontrust.co m

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