Industry Initiates New Floating Wind Project

A new joint industry project (JIP) between fourteen global partners has been launched to develop a Recommended Practice for the coupled analysis of floating offshore wind turbines.

Standardisation is a key milestone to guide the industry towards the development of reliable floating wind turbines, said DNV GL, the project leader. Guidance includes setting up minimum requirements for the design on new concepts that can help investors’ evaluation, and supporting the more mature technologies towards a safe and secure commercialisation.

The project is the first of its kind, bringing together multiple stakeholders from the wind, oil & gas and maritime industries, making it the most interdisciplinary project that engages in the technical advancement for floating offshore wind projects to date, according to DNV GL.

The companies contributing to the development of the new Recommended Practice together with DNV GL are: Ramboll, Ideol, EDF, MARIN, STX Solutions Europe, Esteyco, NAUTILUS Floating Solutions, Techn. Olav Olsen, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), GICON, Glosten, Atkins, MARINTEK.

The new Recommended Practice will build on the experience from the application of the Offshore Standard DNV-OS-J103 “Design of Floating Wind Turbine Structures“ which was published in 2013 and will contain methods and ways to fulfil the requirements set in DNV-OS-J103.

Based on the latest knowledge and practical know-how, the joint approach of developing the future Recommended Practice will greatly reduce the risk of inadequate analysis, leading to substantial time savings. Further advantages stem from the focus on the design of floating wind turbines and the validation of numerical models in respect to their subsequent certification. The coherent structure of the Recommended Practice also provides a unified cost structure for the project development process, DNV GL said.