Wind Power capacity installations continue growing rapidly. It is clearly seen since in 2016, wind overtook coal as the second power generation capacity in Europe. Additionally, EU plans for energy decarbonisation set a path especially relevant and interesting for offshore wind. In this line, Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) presents a large potential which is unexploited up to now, due to a large amount of wind resource existing in deep waters (<60m).
One of the main drawbacks which is hindering floating offshore wind advent is the cost. Such technology is much more expensive than any existing other (currently, its average LCOE is above 100€/MWh); thus, a reduction of the cost is a need to ensure floating wind technology establishment.
In this regard, COREWIND looks beyond the state of the art of the floating technology with the aim of accelerating the path towards its commercial deployment by developing and validating innovative and cost-effective solutions that allows to solve the most critical barrier of floating offshore wind technology, the cost. The project have achieved an Average LCOE per site (3 different locations) in the range 58.8-102.5€/MWh depending on location, technology and scenario (values for 300MW case), achieving better results than initially expected which was a target reduction of 15% compared to 127€MWh of BFOWs (~108€/MWh) presenting a reduction by the end of the project (i.e. 80€/MWh approximately as average) through disruptive technologies and procedures for floating wind sector; paving the way for achieving future cost reductions objectives earlier.
COREWIND project main objective is to achieve significant cost reductions and enhance performance of floating wind technology by concentrating the research and optimization efforts on two essential components, the mooring and anchoring systems and power dynamic cables. The development of key cost-effective and reliable innovative solutions are applied to two different concrete-based floating substructures designs (semi-submersible and spar) supporting very large wind turbines (15 MW). Special focus is given to develop and validate integrated solutions that significantly improve installation techniques and operation and maintenance (O&M) activities. Such innovations aim to not only reduce costs from new concepts but also through technology standardization and market uptake (i.e. the same components may be used under different floater concepts) and digitalization for both better design process and enhanced operation and maintenance.
