PAST EVENT - Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Speaker: David Watson, Canopius

Synopsis:  Although demonstrators and development concepts of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT) are not new commercial floating wind farms are, with three currently operating in the North Sea.  Two are spar designs and one is a semi-submersible.  The current wind farms are on a very modest scale and none have been trouble free, which is to be expected for such new developments.

Floating wind farms are expected to grow considerably in number and size as space in coastal and shallow  waters is used.  Assuming this is the case the practicalities of such very large and distant wind farms are examined with such considerations as their unique movement and loads, mooring reliability and congestion, dynamic cable reliability, improving the possibility of performing offshore maintenance (rather than towing to shore), export cable reliability and the features of floating substation all being discussed.

General concepts of floating offshore wind farms have been well discussed for some years.  This presentation intends to discuss more of the detailed considerations which will be required at scale.       

Date: Thursday 18th January 2024

A copy of this presentation and associated video recording is now available on the OPERA Members area of the website.