Fabrication, Transport and Installation of Floating Wind Turbines

Abstract

As the floating offshore wind turbine industry continues to develop and grow, the capabilities of established shipyard facilities need to be assessed as to their ability to support the expanding construction and installation requirements. This presentation reviews current infrastructure requirements and projected changes to shipyard and port facilities that may be required to support the floating offshore wind industry. Understanding the infrastructure needs of the floating offshore renewable industry will help to identify the port related requirements, to support the offshore installation operations. Naval architecture plays an important role in the construction and installation of floating offshore wind turbines. Intact stability, motions, accelerations and mooring loads need to be calculated for each stage of the construction of a floating offshore wind turbine. Separate shipyards are required for substructure construction and fit-out of the turbines. Marshalling ports are required for mooring components, export cables, inter array cables and maintenance. Large areas are required for the laydown of mooring equipment, turbine blades and nacelles. The presentation will consider the capabilities of established shipyard facilities to support floating wind farm development are assessed by evaluation of size of substructures, height of wind turbine with regards to the cranes for fitting of blades, distance to offshore site and offshore installation vessel characteristics. The presentation will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using large land based cranes, inshore floating crane vessels or offshore crane vessels at the fit-out port for the installation of the turbine. Water depths requirements for import of materials and export of the completed structures will be considered. The vessels required for ocean transport and offshore installation will be discussed. Various construction vessels are required offshore: anchor handling tugs, cable lay vessels, seabed survey vessels. Specialised cargo ships and heavy transport vessels are required to deliver components to the fit out shipyard.