4 Offshore foundations

The primary objective of work package 4 "Offshore foundations and support structures" is to develop innovative, cost-efficient wind turbine support structures to enable the large-scale implementation of offshore wind farms across the EU, from sheltered Baltic sites to deep-water Atlantic and Mediterranean locations, as well as in other emerging markets worldwide.

The work package will achieve this by seeking solutions that integrate the designs of the foundation, sub-structure, tower and turbine machinery in order to optimise the structure as a whole. Particular emphasis will be placed on large wind turbines, deep-water solutions and designs which are insensitive to site conditions, allowing cost reduction through series production.

Ten partners from five countries ranging from universities, a research centre and a certification body to designers, manufacturers and operators of offshore wind turbines are cooperation on the following three tasks:

• Integration of support structure and turbine design
Dynamic support structure loading will be mitigated and site variability should be compensated through the integration of support structure and turbine design and the use of smart turbine control.

• Concepts for deep-water sites
Support for structure concepts for water depths beyond 30m will be developed through innovative bottom-mounted, very soft or floating concepts. Current design practice and experience will be merged with new techniques from the other tasks and applied to concept development for deeper water.

• Enhancement of design methods and standards
Integrated design tools for the automated design of very large numbers of structures at deep-water sites are enhanced. Furthermore, active support is given to the development of dedicated international standards like IEC 61400-3 "Design requirements for offshore wind turbines", which specify  best practice for the design of offshore wind farms (e.g. site-specific design, aerodynamic and hydrodynamic impact, low-risk structures, floating concepts).

Deliverables 

Click here to see the intermediary results of this Work Package.

Leaflet

Foundations and support structures

Work package leader
• University of Stuttgart (D)

Work package partners

• Delft University of Technology (NL)
• Dong Energy (DK)
• Fraunhofer-Insitut fur Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik - IWES (D)
• GE Wind Energy GmbH (D)
• Garrad Hassan and partners Ltd. (GB)
• Germanischer Lloyd WindEnergie GmbH (D)
• Ramboll Danmark A/S (DK)
• Risø National Laboratory - DTU (DK)
• Shell (NL)
• Vattenfall Vindkraft A/S (DK)

Contact details
Mr. Tim Fischer
University of Stuttgart
Universitaet Stuttgart, Stiftungslehrstuhl Windenergie (SWE)
Allmandring 5B
D-70550 Stuttgart
Germany
Tel: +49 711 685 60338
[email protected]