Comparative Analysis Review on Floating Offshore Wind Foundations (FOWF)

This report describes the global FOWF international market, that shows a large and spread potential for Floating Wind Power with over 92% of all the oceans being deeper than 200 m, with better wind regimes further away from shore.

As moves are made into deeper water and harsher conditions, newer, offshore-specific designs are being developed that are easier to install, operate and maintain. The payoff with offshore wind is a better wind resource and higher load factors with greater space to exploit and less impact on local communities. Bigger turbines do produce more power but, when placed together in arrays, they need to be further apart, thus limiting the possible overall energy density of the wind farm. Although, High Cost of Energy for Offshore wind in combination with low electricity prices is one of the major challenges for Offshore wind today as the cost of producing energy is significantly higher than the revenues.

This research work aims to evaluate the possibilities, benefits and challenges for the capabilities that Northern European Offshore waters hold. Where is essential to decrease the LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) by Maximizing and Optimize the power outcome(KWh). The results show that LCOE values are strongly dependent on depth and distance from shore, due to export cable and mooring costs.

This work was submitted in 54^th Naval Engineering and Maritime Industry Congress in Ferrol from 14 to 16 October 2015

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