As floating wind platforms are developed, economic and operational advantages over fixed platforms may become apparent in shallower as well as deeper water. ( 2018) and design criteria in DNVGL ( 2019). ( 2014), Carbon Trust ( 2015), Leimeister et al. However, floating platform design is less mature than for fixed platforms with several configurations under consideration, including semi-submersible, spar, tension-leg, barge types and hybrids, see reviews in Koo et al. Offshore wind speeds are also higher and less intermittent than onshore or nearshore. Floating foundations or platforms are required for deeper water, markedly increasing the available energy resource.

Most platforms to date (2021) have fixed foundations of monopile or jacket structure form, suitable for relatively shallow water, less than about 30 m deep. Offshore wind farms are expanding rapidly in many parts of the world. We consider here total wave power absorption by platforms necessary to determine wave fields due to arrays, comprising wind or wave farms. Wave power transmission due a typical wind turbine array is only reduced slightly (less than 5% for a 10 × 10 platform array) but may be reduced significantly by rows of wave energy converters (by up to about 50%).įloating platforms for offshore renewable energy are becoming established for wind energy and are in early stage development for wave energy. The total power absorption defined by capture width is input into a far field array model with directional wave spreading. Total wave power absorption is analysed here by linear wave diffraction–radiation–drag models for a multi-float wave energy converter and an idealised wind turbine platform, with response and mechanical power in the wave energy case compared with wave basin experiments, including some directional spread wave cases, and accelerations compared in the wind platform case. A floating offshore wind turbine platform also responds dynamically and damping plates are generally employed on semi-submersible configurations to reduce motion, generating substantial drag which absorbs additional wave power. The total wave power absorbed is thus due to mechanical and radiation damping. The kinetic energy of the floats causes waves to be radiated, generating radiation damping. Wave energy converters absorb wave power by mechanical damping for conversion into electricity and multi-float systems may have high capture widths.

Wind turbine power transistor array