Energy and Universal Foundation, in close co-operation with Aalborg University, to undertake installation trials of the Universal Foundation suction bucket foundation. The OWA says it believes that foundation designs such as that from Universal Foundation have the potential to reduce the capital costs of offshore wind energy by up to £1 billion over the next decade and reduce the cost of energy from offshore windfarms by 10 per cent.
The £6.5 million joint industry trial is due to be executed in the third quarter of 2014 and will see installation of the Universal Foundation suction bucket together with a reference bucket at a number of different locations at the sites of three planned major offshore windfarms in the North Sea. The foundations will be installed at each site, then withdrawn and moved onto the next site for testing. The Carbon Trust has estimated that new lower cost foundations could save developers up to £1 billion on the basis of new foundation designs driving a 10 per cent reduction in the cost of energy from 2,500 offshore wind turbines expected to be deployed over the next decade. Commenting on the trial, Jan Matthiesen, director of the OWA, said the suction bucket was “a really great innovation as you can install it faster and at lower costs than conventional steel foundations.
“That is good for developers and for consumers as it means it brings down the cost of offshore wind energy,” he said, noting that the trial would help determine the extent to which it can be applied for future offshore wind projects. Jan-Fredrik Stadaas, technology manager for offshore wind at Statoil, said the project was an important one for the industry project. He said it was an important piece of “de-risking activity”, moving technology further and securing future cost reductions. Universal Foundation has teamed up with Fred Olsen Windcarrier to undertake the trials at sites with differing soil conditions in order to determine the potential range of use for the new foundation, which is expected to be significantly quicker to install and requires less steel than conventional monopile foundations.
Universal Foundation’s suction bucket was one of four novel low cost foundation designs that were shortlisted following an international competition run by the Carbon Trust in 2009. Two Universal Foundation suction buckets
www.owjonline.com
Trials with Universal Foundation’s suction bucket foundation are due to get underway shortly
The jacket structure is installed atop the suction bucket foundation
have already been installed at Dogger Bank, a Round 3 offshore wind site, where they support two meteorological masts. In addition, an offshore met mast foundation was installed in Denmark in 2009, and a 3MW turbine on a Universal Foundation has been fully operational in Frederikshavn since 2002. Torgeir Ramstad, managing
director of Fred Olsen United, of which Universal Foundation is a part, said, “Not only are we able to install in a wide range of soil conditions, carrying the largest turbines in deeper waters, we can accomplish installation of turbines immediately following foundation installation thus entering the production phase much
Offshore Wind Journal I 3rd Quarter 2014 I 47
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