Presentations

Abstract

Offshore wind farms under development are increasingly moving to deep waters exceeding 100 meters, where traditional bottom-fixed foundations are no longer economically viable. These deep-water sites often offer superior wind conditions and proximity to energy demand centers that lack access for other renewable energy while the demand increase from growth of urban population or higher energy demand from the shift away from fossil fuels. To enable grid integration of such floating offshore wind farms, floating offshore substations (OSS) are essential. Unlike fixed OSS, floating substations face unique challenges due to their continuous motion, which affects the design and reliability of critical components. These challenges span three key domains: dynamic cable systems, high-voltage equipment, and the integrated topside, floater, and station-keeping systems. Each domain requires specialized expertise and must be developed in close coordination to ensure system compatibility and performance where each part has significant interdependence from the others. This paper emphasizes the importance of a collaborative design approach across these domains to address interdependencies and optimize the overall system. The collaboration of key market players aims to bring floating substations from concept and design study levels to realization by understanding the challenges, how they are assessed and addressed and defining the design methods for the key components and the interactions between those. By fostering industry-wide cooperation, floating OSS can unlock the potential of deep-water wind energy, contributing significantly to the global renewable energy transition.