A preliminary parametric techno-economic study of offshore wind floater concepts

A. Ioannou*, Y. Liang, M.L. Jalón, F.P. Brennan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The rapid development of the offshore wind industry is leading stimulating interest in exploiting wind resources in deeper waters and farther offshore, requiring alternative support structures including floating foundations. Currently, a number of different concepts are under development aiming to become commercialised for deployment in the near future. One of the main barriers against their widespread adoption is cost, which is currently considerably higher than fixed support structures. This paper investigates through a parametric study the total mass and cost of three floater concepts: spar, barge and semi-submersible, particularly focusing on the material and manufacturing costs. The manufacturing cost was approached by means of manufacturing complexity factors, whose values were obtained through a survey among experts in floating offshore wind. Key finding of this work, under the defined conditions, is the fact that semi-sub structures with steel as structural material appeared to be the most expensive configuration, spar costs decrease with higher draft values, due to the reduction in the ballast mass, while the barge solution is potentially the lowest cost alternative. Nevertheless, risks and benefits of different configurations should also be considered alongside, as they could lead to savings throughout the service life of the asset.

Original languageEnglish
Article number106937
JournalOcean Engineering
Volume197
Early online date20 Jan 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2020

Keywords

  • Floating wind turbines
  • Hydrostatic analysis
  • Material and manufacturing cost
  • Parametric analysis
  • Techno-economics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A preliminary parametric techno-economic study of offshore wind floater concepts'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this