Posters

Abstract

One of the key challenges in the energy transition is the reduction of the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) of wind assets through product and technology development while not compromising on project quality and reliability. In addition to increasing turbine sizes and speeding‑up technologies’ maturation (e.g. floating wind), offshore wind developers have been facing pressure from stakeholders to boost profitability by improving the design of wind farm’s key structures so projects are able to operate beyond the current 20-25-27 years lifetime. Operators have also been challenged to extend the operation of existing projects beyond their design lifetime by the use of robust inspection plans, improve of control algorithms and advance of analytical techniques. The present work suggests a roadmap to the offshore wind industry providing guidance on how to plan the lifetime extension of offshore wind farms at the development and operation stages from a third-party certification perspective. This study discusses offshore wind generators, supporting structures, foundations, substations, and subsea cables. Using wind data and learnings and techniques from the wind, oil and gas and marine sectors, the work provides guidance, principles, methods, and requirements for lifetime extension of offshore wind farms, and therefore support the industry in the reduction of LCOE for offshore wind projects.