The Anonymous Widower

SSE, Marubeni & CIP’s Floating Wind Farm In Scotland Could Have 270 Turbines And 6 Offshore Substations

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.

This is the sub-heading.

SSE Renewables, Marubeni and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Scoping Report for the array area of their Ossian floating wind farm to Marine Scotland. According to the report, the wind farm could have up to 270 wind turbines and six offshore substations.

Ossian floating wind farm will be one of the world’s largest floating wind farms.

• If it sticks to 3.6 GW, 270 turbines will mean 13 MW turbines.
• 14 MW would be 3.8 GW and 15 MW would be 4 GW, with the same number of turbines.
• If they stick to 3.6 GW, this could be 257 x 14 MW or 240 x 15 MW turbines.
• Knowing ambitious engineers as I do and given that 15 MW turbines are on the way, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 15 MW turbines, to get the full 4 GW.
• According to this press release from Siemens Gamesa, they can make the turbine blades for their 15 MW turbines in Hull.

These two paragraphs outline the design possibilities.

For the floating wind turbine foundations, the consortium is considering either semi-submersible or Tension Leg Platform (TLP) structures and three mooring configurations; catenary, semi taut and taut mooring lines. Anchoring options currently under consideration include driven piles, and a number of different embedded anchor types, including suction piles, Drag Embedment Anchors (DEA) and VLA, with up to nine anchors required per foundation.

Floating foundations might not only be used for the wind turbines, but also for Ossian’s offshore substations.

When I look at a project like this, I also think of the project management possibilities.

• Will the six offshore sub-stations be positioned, so that as turbines are installed, they can be commissioned and start generating electricity?
• Is there software to optimise the order of installation?
• Has a specialist project management system been written for wind farms?

If you need a program to do analyse anything like that, buy me a drink and we’ll talk about it.

It’s about time, some of the algorithms in my brain were put to use.

The article also says this.

The 3.6 GW Ossian floating wind farm is planned to be up and running before the end of the decade.

My experience tells me, that if the right philosophy is used, that estimated date could be beaten.

It’s just that it is a project with so many complexities, that a proper mathematical model of its construction would yield benefits.

March 17, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Floating Wind Power, Marubeni, Offshore Wind Power, Ossian Wind Farm, Project Management, SSE Renewables, Wind Power