FLOATING SUPPORT STRUCTURES

Advantages

More than 100 meters water depth Assembly of turbine in harbor or near shore

Disadvantages

Large structures Receptive to roll and sway

Among support structures for wind turbines, the least used and proven are the floating designs. This is an area where the number of blueprints, ideas, and plans stands in contrast to the actual number of floating turbines. To this day, only a few wind turbines in the world stand on a floating support structure. ne is the !ywind in "orway, fitted with a turbine from #iemens. Another is the $indfloat, installed off the coast of %ortugal, with a &estas turbine. Moreover, a couple of scale models float in the oceans' the (lue !, near )taly, and #way, a prototype in the waters of "orway. A floating support structure is recogni*ed by the fact that the support comes from the water and not from the ground. +enerally, the contact to the seabed is through anchor lines, also called mooring cables. All the different types of floating structures have their origin in the oil and gas industry, but modifications and hybrids are beginning to emerge in their use for wind turbines. $ithin offshore wind structures, three different types are present'

the spar floater, the tension leg platform, and the barge floater

, in that order. The spar floater The basic structure of the spar floater is cylindrical. )t is a large tube that floats due to large amounts of air in the top of the structure, and stays upright due to a large amount of ballast at the bottom.

The size of the Hywind is impressive. For comparison, the most famous WW2 U-boat, the U-4 , is drawn ne!t to the structure. "##ustration$ %&'(

The !ywind is constructed in this way. The steel tube reaches 100 meters down below the waterline, it has a diameter of -.. meters /0 meters at the water line1, and is constructed from 1200 tonnes of steel. $ith ballast and turbine, the total weight is 2.00 tonnes. !ywind carries a #iemens 3.. M$ turbine. The spar floater is secured to the seabed with mooring lines. )t tilts slightly as the water and wind affects the structure. This is the main disadvantage for all floating concepts, as wind turbines are designed for a stable base and an angle no more than 0.2 degrees out of vertical. The solution for this in the case of the spar floater is weight. The larger the ballast, the calmer the movements. 4or !ywind, #tatoil says the tilt is down to . degrees out of vertical, and the oscillations , the swaying from side to side , last between 30 and .0 seconds. This is set out in this article. The advantage of the spar floater in comparison with other floaters is the small cross5section at the surface. This way, the spar floater is not as sensitive to wave motions. 4or the !ywind, the diameter at the water line is 0 meters. )nstallation of the spar floater is done in two or three steps. 4irst, the support structure is sailed hori*ontally out of the harbor. The floater is up5ended in deep water /100 meters1 , not necessarily at the final site. After up5ending, the tower, turbine, and rotor are installed. The complete support structure and turbine can now be sailed to the final position and secured with mooring lines and anchors. The owner #tatoil and manufacturer Technip show the installation in this video.