Q&A Energy & Infrastructure - Floating Foundations For Offshore Wind Farms

Introduction

Floating wind turbines offer an alternative to the conventional structural foundation on the seabed. The first commercial wind farms with floating foundations are already in operation, e.g. WindFloat Atlantic off the coast of Portugal or Hywind and Kincardine off the coast of Scotland. Other wind farms with significantly higher capacity are in the planning or have already reached the construction stage, such as Hywind Tampen off the coast of Norway. In South Korea, according to current government plans, floating wind farms with a total capacity of 6 GW and an investment volume of around 27 billion Euros are to be built by 2030. Both the United Kingdom and France consider floating wind turbines in their current CfD (Contracts for Difference) tenders. And most recently, at the end of May the US government announced plans for the construction of offshore wind farms with a capacity of 30 GW for which floating foundations are to be used on the Pacific coast.