Design Optimisation of Power Cable, Shared Electrical Line and Mooring configurations for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Over the preceding decades the global demand for electricity has been rising due to social and economic progress. Together with the climate change challenge, a desire for alternative solutions is opening opportunities for renewable energies. One branch of renewable energies is offshore wind technology. It is a rising force on the energy market and its deployment has strongly increased over the last years. Projects can be large, and the wind turbines can work closer to their optimum efficiency due to more consistent wind conditions compared to on land. Bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines have a high level of standardization nowadays but are limited to a certain water depth. Thus, the trend is to go further offshore with floating concepts for even better wind resources and greater social acceptance. Currently, floating offshore wind technology does not reach a low levelized cost of energy (LCOE), meaning cost competitiveness, compared to other energy sources yet, but this is expected to change by further development. Areas for cost reduction are technology and design improvements. The cost of floating offshore wind turbines is dominated by the capital expenditure of which about 10% are mooring and anchoring costs. Apart from the mooring, power cables are also exposed to large loads due to fluid-cable-soil interactions under combined waves and currents conditions. Hence, to reduce costs, the equipment should be designed long lasting, durable, optimally laid out and with the least amount of impact for the environment. Therefore, the primary objective of the proposed PhD study is to optimize the power cable, shared electrical lines and mooring configurations of floating offshore wind turbines. Numerical analysis in this proposed PhD study requires a fully coupled simulation tool that can account for the global response of the floating wind turbine, the hydrodynamic loads on power cables, shared electrical lines and mooring lines for a floating offshore wind park.

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Over the preceding decades the global demand for electricity has been rising due to social and economic progress. Together with the climate change challenge, a desire for alternative solutions is opening opportunities for renewable energies. One branch of renewable energies is offshore wind technology. It is a rising force on the energy market and its deployment has strongly increased over the last years. Projects can be large, and the wind turbines can work closer to their optimum efficiency due to more consistent wind conditions compared to on land. Bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines have a high level of standardization nowadays but are limited to a certain water depth. Thus, the trend is to go further offshore with floating concepts for even better wind resources and greater social acceptance. Currently, floating offshore wind technology does not reach a low levelized cost of energy (LCOE), meaning cost competitiveness, compared to other energy sources yet, but this is expected to change by further development. Areas for cost reduction are technology and design improvements. The cost of floating offshore wind turbines is dominated by the capital expenditure of which about 10% are mooring and anchoring costs. Apart from the mooring, power cables are also exposed to large loads due to fluid-cable-soil interactions under combined waves and currents conditions. Hence, to reduce costs, the equipment should be designed long lasting, durable, optimally laid out and with the least amount of impact for the environment. Therefore, the primary objective of the proposed PhD study is to optimize the power cable, shared electrical lines and mooring configurations of floating offshore wind turbines. Numerical analysis in this proposed PhD study requires a fully coupled simulation tool that can account for the global response of the floating wind turbine, the hydrodynamic loads on power cables, shared electrical lines and mooring lines for a floating offshore wind park.