The i4Offshore project was intending to demonstrate the break-down of cost-barriers of large-scale offshore wind farm developments as the intention was, during the project, to install and operate an innovative offshore system solution featuring a Siemens Gamesa next-generation direct drive wind turbine, a hybrid-material gravity jacket foundation optimized for low-cost manufacturing, and a new low-cost array cable-in-pipe solution as a full-size demonstrator at a commercial site.
The project was also intending to become more than just a technology demonstration as the project would also have combined the technological advances with deep and targeted study of holistic concepts for leaner manufacturing, onshore and offshore transport of components for full scale operation and innovative strategies for operation and maintenance as well as for offshore logistics and installation.
The project intended to provide special attention to the mitigation of bottlenecks in the value chain as reduction of cost is the paramount concern across all stages of the offshore wind manufacturing, construction, installation, operation, maintenance and decommissioning process.
Enabled by the innovative concepts for manufacturing, logistics, installation, and O&M, actual data from the installed and operated wind turbine system would have validated the commercial viability of implementing a GW-sized offshore wind farm based on the i4Offshore field-proven solution.
The new offshore solution would have provided new, modularized components allowing leaner, faster, more reliable and more cost-efficient logistics-solutions in the transportation, handling, installation and O&M phases of future commercial project development.
The i4Offshore project would have delivered innovative, reliable and robust offshore wind power solutions reducing the LCoE for the entire wind farm to 80 €/MWh (or lower) before 2025.
