A new ‘suction bucket’ foundation for anchoring offshore wind turbines to the seabed has the potential to reduce set-up costs of offshore wind energy by up to £1 billion ($AUD 1.8 billion) over the next decade.
The Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) – a joint-industry research and development collaborative between some of the UK’s largest wind energy companies – will in coming months host a £6.5 million industry trial of the innovative bucket foundation, which was developed by Denmark’s Universal Foundation.
The foundation’s unique design removes the need for heavy pile-driven installation, which can cause environmental damage through sonic vibrations and disruption of the ocean floor. Instead, the all-in-one unit screws itself into the seabed and silt and water fill the bucket, creating suction that can anchor the platform in almost any medium.
The suction operation can also be reversed, allowing complete removal of the foundation for re-use and redeployment to other locations.
The suction bucket anchoring system is one of four novel low-cost wind turbine foundation designs shortlisted following an international Carbon Trust competition that sought new ways to lower the capital costs of installing offshore wind power.
According to the Carbon Trust’s Jan Matthiesen, designs like the suction bucket foundation could save developers up to one billion pounds and drive down the cost of energy from offshore wind farms by 10 percent over the next decade.
“The ‘suction bucket’ foundation is a really great innovation for the industry as you can install it faster and at lower costs than conventional steel foundations. That is good for developers and for consumers as it means it brings down the cost of offshore wind energy. This trial is critical as it will determine the extent to which it can be applied for future offshore wind projects,” he said.
Universal Foundation will work with several North Sea wind energy companies, Statoil, Statkraft, EON and DONG Energy, along with a Danish university, to install and trial the suction bucket foundation at three planned wind farm sites in the OWA area.
“This is an important industry project, demonstrating cost reduction through industry collaboration and partnering,” said Jan-Fredrik Stadaas, Technology Manager for Offshore Wind in Statoil. “We hope to see results from this project benefit the whole offshore wind industry, especially in the UK market.”
