Samsung Heavy Industries Co. has acquired approval in principle (AIP) for its independently developed offshore floater for wind power turbines from DNV, a Norwegian ship quality assurance and risk management company.

Approval in principle (AIP) for the floater means a certification agency has reviewed its basic design and confirmed that it meets the agency’s technical requirements and standards for safety.

Design:

The design approach is basically attaching the wind turbine to a structure that floats in the water instead of putting it on a fixed foundation in the sea. The structure is tethered to the seabed to stop it from drifting off into a beach or shipping lane.

Statistics:

Some 60 percent of available offshore wind resource in the U.S. is beyond the reach of fixed-bottom foundation turbines, including practically the whole of the West Coast, according to a 2017 statement from industry body WindEurope.

In Europe, floating offshore wind could deliver an extra 4 terawatts over and above the continent’s already leading level of bottom-fixed capacity. And in Japan, floating foundations will be critical for the development of an offshore wind sector that could offer 500 gigawatts of capacity.

Beyond the ability to capture vast untapped energy resources, floating offshore wind also carries significant industrial promise. For the U.S., it could be a way to get into a renewables sector that the country has so far barely been able to qualify for. In addition, Europe’s oil and gas companies, which seem increasingly committed to joining the energy transition, see floating wind as an area where their existing offshore experience can pay handsome dividends.

Benefits:

Putting turbines onto floaters gives a developer access deeper waters. which means more potential project sites and lots more potential capacity.

Regardless of the pace of development there’s no doubt that floating offshore wind is going places at the global level. Even in the short term, that could lead to some interesting innovations in the offshore wind sector.

With other foundation designs, the minimum depth requirement is much lower  so turbine installation could happen onshore with the fully assembled turbines and foundations then towed to site, significantly cutting costs.

The 9.5-megawatt floater will help reduce the construction period of offshore wind power turbines. This is achieved by removing pontoons, which refer to a small, flat boat or a metal structure of a similar shape used to support the offshore wind power turbines.

The development of the floater can expand the shipbuilders’ business line to the renewable energy sector, the company said.