DONG Energy has received £6 million to co-fund the project. The company has a target to help drive down the cost of electricity by 40 percent for projects sanctioned in 2020 and innovation in key areas such as foundations is critical to achieve this target. The Suction Bucket Jacket was designed by DONG Energy and based on ideas from the SPT Offshore foundation a finalist in a global competition run by the Carbon Trust to find lower cost foundation solutions.
If the demonstration is successful, it could be implemented in future commercial projects from 2017 – including the UK Round 3 projects. The Suction Bucket Jacket combines jacket technology, consisting of welded tubular space frames, with suction buckets for anchoring the foundation firmly to the seabed. The bucket foundation (suction caisson) is a well-known concept from the oil and gas industry, where it has been used for more than 30 years for oil platforms installed in the North Sea.
A full-scale prototype of the foundation will be demonstrated with a wind turbine as quickly as possible to allow the performance and stability of the technology to be verified. DONG Energy will demonstrate a full-scale Suction Bucket Jacket prototype at the offshore wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 1, where the sandy soil conditions are highly suitable for testing of this new concept. The foundation will be installed in 2014.
“This project shows that not only is the UK the world’s most attractive destination for investment in offshore wind, we’re at the cutting edge of innovation in the sector” said UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey. “Innovations like these bring green jobs to Britain, support wider supply chains and reduce the cost of renewable energy bringing real benefit to consumers.”
The prototype foundation will be installed with a state of the art measurement system that will provide essential data for the verification of the Suction Bucket Jacket concept. The collaboration will ensure that OWA participants E.ON, Mainstream Renewable Power, ScottishPower Renewables, Statkraft and Statoil will get full insight into this data, and also have full visibility of the fabrication and installation of the new foundation design. This will allow them to evaluate whether to use it in the UK.
“Cutting the costs of offshore wind quickly is the greatest challenge facing the industry over the coming few years” added Carbon Trust Chief Executive Tom Delay. “Having identified that lower cost foundations remove significant cost we are delighted to be working with DONG Energy to take this exciting design forward and sharing the concept with other players in the industry.”
The Suction Bucket Jacket offers a number of advantages, which will be in demand once offshore wind turbines increase in size beyond 5-6 MW and are located in deep water between 30 to 60 metres. These include significant reduction of the foundation cost, an environmentally friendly installation process with negligible noise emission and the ability to be installed in a variety of seabed soil conditions.
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