Summary
The offshore wind market is a young and rapidly growing market, whose current project pipeline for 2025/30 would equal nearly 80 nuclear plants, mostly in Europe. The next decade and beyond may average 1,000 offshore towers/year worldwide, with an overall investment volume around 15-20.000 M€/year.
This growing sector faces technological challenges, as it is set to move into deeper waters further offshore while being able to reduce the costs in order to reach a competitive LCOE (levelised cost of energy). For water depths above 40m (70% of the future market) approximately 40-50% of investment corresponds to the substructure (foundation and tower). Therefore a significant cost reduction in foundation/tower would drastically improve the overall cost of offshore wind energy.
This project intends to develop and demonstrate in operative environment a full scale prototype of a revolutionary substructure system for offshore wind turbines. The concept consists in a self-installing precast concrete telescopic tower which for the first time ever shall allow for crane-free offshore installation of foundations, towers and turbines, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by the dependence on offshore heavy-lift vessels. It will allow for a full in-shore preassembly of the complete system, which is key to generate a highly industrialized manufacturing process with high production rates and optimized risk control. The main benefits expected are:
• 30-40% cost reduction (both CAPEX and OPEX).
• Large water depth applicability range for deep offshore (>45m water depth).
• Supports increased turbine size (5-8MW).
• Allows for large scale fast industrial deployment of foundations.
• Reduces dependence on costly and scarce installation vessels.
• Improved asset integrity (durability)
This solution will imply a radical step forward for cost-effective and industrially deployable deep offshore wind.
This growing sector faces technological challenges, as it is set to move into deeper waters further offshore while being able to reduce the costs in order to reach a competitive LCOE (levelised cost of energy). For water depths above 40m (70% of the future market) approximately 40-50% of investment corresponds to the substructure (foundation and tower). Therefore a significant cost reduction in foundation/tower would drastically improve the overall cost of offshore wind energy.
This project intends to develop and demonstrate in operative environment a full scale prototype of a revolutionary substructure system for offshore wind turbines. The concept consists in a self-installing precast concrete telescopic tower which for the first time ever shall allow for crane-free offshore installation of foundations, towers and turbines, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by the dependence on offshore heavy-lift vessels. It will allow for a full in-shore preassembly of the complete system, which is key to generate a highly industrialized manufacturing process with high production rates and optimized risk control. The main benefits expected are:
• 30-40% cost reduction (both CAPEX and OPEX).
• Large water depth applicability range for deep offshore (>45m water depth).
• Supports increased turbine size (5-8MW).
• Allows for large scale fast industrial deployment of foundations.
• Reduces dependence on costly and scarce installation vessels.
• Improved asset integrity (durability)
This solution will imply a radical step forward for cost-effective and industrially deployable deep offshore wind.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/674741 |
| Start date: | 01-06-2015 |
| End date: | 31-05-2017 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 3 575 441,46 Euro - 2 497 862,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
The offshore wind market is a young and rapidly growing market, whose current project pipeline for 2025/30 would equal nearly 80 nuclear plants, mostly in Europe. The next decade and beyond may average 1,000 offshore towers/year worldwide, with an overall investment volume around 15-20.000 M€/year.This growing sector faces technological challenges, as it is set to move into deeper waters further offshore while being able to reduce the costs in order to reach a competitive LCOE (levelised cost of energy). For water depths above 40m (70% of the future market) approximately 40-50% of investment corresponds to the substructure (foundation and tower). Therefore a significant cost reduction in foundation/tower would drastically improve the overall cost of offshore wind energy.
This project intends to develop and demonstrate in operative environment a full scale prototype of a revolutionary substructure system for offshore wind turbines. The concept consists in a self-installing precast concrete telescopic tower which for the first time ever shall allow for crane-free offshore installation of foundations, towers and turbines, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by the dependence on offshore heavy-lift vessels. It will allow for a full in-shore preassembly of the complete system, which is key to generate a highly industrialized manufacturing process with high production rates and optimized risk control. The main benefits expected are:
• 30-40% cost reduction (both CAPEX and OPEX).
• Large water depth applicability range for deep offshore (>45m water depth).
• Supports increased turbine size (5-8MW).
• Allows for large scale fast industrial deployment of foundations.
• Reduces dependence on costly and scarce installation vessels.
• Improved asset integrity (durability)
This solution will imply a radical step forward for cost-effective and industrially deployable deep offshore wind.
Status
CLOSEDCall topic
SIE-01-2014Update Date
27-10-2022
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