DNV GL launches joint industry project to standardize floating wind turbines

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(HAMBURG, Germany) — DNV GL has launched a new joint industry project (JIP) together with 13 global partners to mutually develop a recommended practice for the coupled analysis of floating offshore wind turbines.

Despite the fact that the wind industry has a strong focus on the development of floating offshore wind turbines, it is still missing a widely recognized and unified approach for the practical methods to build and validate the numerical models, in accordance with the requirements in the standards. Standardization is a key milestone to guide the industry toward the development of reliable floating wind turbines. Guidance includes setting up minimum requirements for the design on new concepts that can help investors’ evaluation, and supporting the more mature technologies toward a safe and secure commercialization.

The project is the first of its kind, bringing together multiple stakeholders from the wind, oil and gas and maritime industries, making it the most interdisciplinary project that engages in the technical advancement for floating offshore wind projects to date.

The participants come from a broad range of industries, including utilities, component manufacturing, engineering consultants, maritime research institutes, shipyards and academic research. The following companies are contributing to the development of the new recommended practice: Ramboll, Ideol, EDF, MARIN, STX Solutions Europe, Esteyco, NAUTILUS Floating Solutions, Dr. Techn. Olav Olsen, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), GICON, Glosten, Atkins and MARINTEK.

The new recommended practice will build on the experience from the application of the Offshore Standard DNV-OS-J103 “Design of Floating Wind Turbine Structures“ which was published in 2013 and will contain methods and ways to fulfil the requirements set in DNV-OS-J103.

Since its publication, the offshore standard DNV-OS-J103 has been broadly used for the design of floating wind turbine structures. At the time of publication, the practical experiences in the field of floating offshore wind energy have been rather limited in providing reliable information on validating numerical models for the turbine construction and reliable insight on the level of complexity required at each individual project stage. Over the last three years, the industry has greatly advanced moving the commercialization of the new technology forward, as the world’s first floating wind farm demonstration projects have since been launched.

Based on the latest knowledge and practical know-how, the joint approach of developing the future recommended practice will greatly reduce the risk of inadequate analysis, leading to substantial time savings. Further advantages stem from the focus on the design of floating wind turbines and the validation of numerical models in respect to their subsequent certification. The coherent structure of the recommended practice also provides a unified cost structure for the project development process.

By Professional Mariner Staff