INDUSTRY EVENT
U NIVE R SAL INDUSTRY EXPERTS GATHER
TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE GENERATION OF OFFSHORE WIND FOUNDATIONS
Nearly 100 international delegates congregated in Hamburg recently for the first technical conference led by Universal Foundation, focused on knowledge sharing for offshore wind suction bucket foundation technology.
TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
The technical workshop brought together industry specialists, developers, turbine suppliers, certifiers and approval bodies, engineering, fabrication and installation contractors, authorities as well as academic experts to discuss and share experiences in an open forum and reflect on lessons learnt in the evolving offshore wind sector as well as experiences that can be taken from the well-established oil and gas sector.
ENCOURAGING OPEN SHARING
“The workshop was designed to encourage open sharing which is something we firmly believe that we should be doing more of as an industry,” said Torgeir Ramstad, Managing Director of Universal Foundation Norway. “The industry must find new ways of working together if we are to reach the required cost reductions, which are essential for ensuring a sustainable industry and to address the increased technical challenges with turbines being installed further offshore in deeper waters.”
SUCTION BUCKET TECHNOLOGY The Universal Foundation technology is an innovative application of suction bucket technology learned from over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas sector. The technology is a hybrid design combining the benefits of a suction anchor, monopod and gravity based foundation once installed.
Delegates heard from Tor Inge Tjelta, Geotechnical Specialist from Statoil, regarding their vast experience with suction bucket technology dating back to the 1980s and many delegates were surprised to hear that more suction buckets of different kinds have been installed globally, than monopiles in the offshore wind industry.
BASIC CONCEPT
“The basic concept behind Universal Foundation is not new technology, the innovation is in its application to offshore wind foundations and the controlled installation system which ensures that the turbine can achieve true verticality, eliminating the requirement for a separate transition piece with challenging grouted connections and reducing the number of marine operations,” said Otto J. Nielsen, Managing Director of Universal Foundation (DK).
The foundation technology is already proven, with two foundations installed last year for met masts on Dogger Bank in the UK, as well as a near shore turbine demonstrator installed in Frederikshavn in Denmark in 2002 and another met mast installation at Horns Rev in Denmark in 2009.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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