Project description
Floating wind energy systems gain ground
Wind power capacity installations continue to grow rapidly. It is clearly seen since wind overtook coal as the second power generation capacity in Europe in 2016. Additionally, EU plans for energy decarbonisation have set a path that is especially relevant for offshore wind. Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) presents a large potential, due to the amount of wind resource existing in deep waters (<60m); which is not exploited yet since traditional bottom-fixed offshore wind is not economically attractive for such locations, and floating technology is still in development and demonstration phase. COREWIND is setting the path to reverse this. The research team is developing two concrete-based floater concepts that include the required anchoring systems and cabling to enable the electricity to be delivered to the grid; aiming at making FOWT cost-competitive.
Objective
Floating offshore wind is still a nascent technology and its LCOE is substantially higher than onshore and bottom-fixed offshore wind, and thus requires to be drastically reduced.
The COREWIND project aims to achieve significant cost reductions and enhance performance of floating wind technology through the research and optimization of mooring and anchoring systems and dynamic cables. These enhancements arisen within the project will be validated by means of simulations and experimental testing both in the wave basin tanks and the wind tunnel by taking as reference two concrete-based floater concepts (semi-submersible and spar) supporting large wind turbines (15 MW), installed at water depths greater than 40 m and 90 m for the semi-submersible and spar concept, respectively. Special focus is given to develop and validate innovative solutions to improve installation techniques and operation and maintenance (O&M) activities. They will prove the benefits of concrete structures to substantially reduce the LCOE by at least15% compared to the baseline case of bottom-fixed offshore wind, both in terms of CAPEX and OPEX. Additionally, the project will provide guidelines and best design practices, as well as open data models to accelerate the further development of concrete-based semi-submersible and spar FOWTs, based on findings from innovative cost-effective and reliable solutions for the aforementioned key aspects. It is aimed that the resulting recommendations will facilitate the cost-competitiveness of floating offshore wind energy, reducing risks and uncertainties and contributing to lower LCOE estimates.
COREWIND aims to strength the European Leadership on wind power technology (and specially floating). To do so, the project consortium has been designed to ensure proper collaboration between all stakeholders (users, developers, suppliers, academia, etc.) which is essential to accelerate commercialization of the innovations carried out in the project.
Fields of science
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
08930 Sant Adria De Besos
Spain