STRUCTURAL RELIABLE OFFSHORE FLOATING PV SOLUTION INTEGRATING CIRCULAR CONCRETE FLOATING BREAKWATER

STRUCTURAL RELIABLE OFFSHORE FLOATING PV SOLUTION INTEGRATING CIRCULAR CONCRETE FLOATING BREAKWATER

SUREWAVE will develop and test an innovative concept of Floating Photo-Voltaic (FPV) system consisting of an external floating breakwater structure acting as a protection against severe wave-wind-current loads on the FPV modules, allowing increased operational availability and energy output, thus unlocking the massive deployment of Offshore FPV. It will be focused on the research for securing optimal behaviour at aero & hydrodynamic and structural integrity level of the external breakwater, the internal FPV modular structure, the connections, the mooring and anchoring and the whole FPV system, complying with mechanical, electrical (maximizing energy output) and cost-efficiency requirements, ensuring high lifetime of critical components, high reliability of the system and easy, quick and cost-efficient, construction, installation and O&M of the whole system. This will require: 1) the development of novel circular concrete material solutions for the breakwater, cost-effective, easy to produce and with high mechanical, physical and durability properties and low CO2 footprint. 2) the development of an advanced predictive computational modelling and simulation framework: coupled aero & hydrodynamic modelling, Structural integrity modelling, material properties modelling and Structural Health Management to reduce CAPEX and OPEX; 3) the design and implementation of an optimal testing and validation methodology for offshore FPV system to achieve TRL5, including lab testing, basin-model testing and marine environment testing of critical components assuring high resilience to corrosion and biofouling. Maximum advantage of existing expertise will be taken from experts in: offshore wind floating structures, material and phenomena modelling (SINTEF, MARIN, CEIT), design and installation of FPV in calm waters (SIS), floating solutions (CLEMENT), circular structural and non-structural materials (ACC) and in social, environmental and economic assessment (IFEU).