Page 10: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2024)

FLOATING WIND

Europe will see ? oating wind deployment in the Atlantic, rently there are concerns that the supply chain cannot cope

Baltic, Mediterranean and North Sea, with the UK (80-150 with the quantities required. meters) and Norwegian (200-400 meters) markets likely to A commercial scale ? oating wind farm will generally be drive activity through this and the ? rst half of the next decade. anything larger than 500 MW and likely be ~1 GW. At a high-

In the U.S., the ? rst commercial scale projects will be off level, we can say that the 1 GW ? oating wind farm will have

California (500-1,300 meters). Future activity is planned off a similar order of magnitude capital expenditure to an FPSO.

Oregon (550-1,500 meters), the Gulf of Maine (190-300 me- The pre-lay of moorings and array cables and the towing of ters) and the Central Atlantic (over 2,000 meters). Canada is the turbines will leverage skills developed in the offshore oil also investing ? oating wind, but this is at the early stages. & gas industry.

The oil & gas industry has much experience working in the The table establishes that the global quantities of mooring water depths discussed for ? oating wind. The bigger challeng- lines, anchors and array cables are signi? cant. The quantity es come in the quantities involved. is not the only challenge for the existing installation ? eet of anchor handlers and subsea vessels, but also the physical size

The numbers in Commercial Scale Floating Wind of the components. The size of the mooring components is

Floating wind is an emerging technology. At end of 223, total also generally larger than that seen in the oil and gas indus- global ? oating offshore wind capacity was less than 250 MW try. In fact, project planning is calling for mooring chain sizes out of a total offshore wind capacity of 64 GW. We forecast that challenge and even exceed the capabilities of the world’s total installed ? oating wind capacity of ~6.25 GW by the end largest deepwater anchor handlers. Given that today’s ? eet of of 2030 and close to 70 GW by 2035. large anchor handlers was not designed with ? oating wind in

To achieve the forecast, commercial scale projects will need mind, it is not surprising that many are not the optimal tool for to commence offshore mooring and array cable pre-lay op- ? oating wind. Chain sizes can be reduced, but that results in erations three-to-four years before ? nal commissioning. Cur- the need for more mooring lines which accentuates the prob- 1 GW FLOATING WIND FARM QUANTITIES

Source: Intelatus Global Partners 10 July/August 2024

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