Developing a novel foundation to secure floating renewable energy turbines

PhD student

Behnam Norouzi

Supervisors

Prof Yinghui Tian	Prof Guanlin Ye Shanghai Jiao Tong University	Dr Yifa Wang

Project Start Date: May 2022

Project Details

Energy production based on fossil fuel reserves is largely responsible for carbon emissions, and hence global warming. The planet needs concerted action to reduce fossil fuel usage and to implement carbon mitigation measures. Offshore wind farms, as one of the best solutions, are becoming increasingly popular in the quest for renewable sources of energy, and different offshore wind turbines are being installed in different parts of the world.

Despite the advantages, offshore wind farms are costly. Wind speeds increase with distance from the shore, producing higher loads on the turbines, requiring more robust structural design and higher transmission costs. In order to make offshore wind farms cost-effective, the turbines must be large and located in deep waters. These requirements increase the cost of the foundation structures, which can be a significant percentage of the total cost. Over 40% of the expenditure of wind turbines lies in the foundation solutions to secure the turbines. Various criteria and factors are considered in the design of these foundations, including: Water depth, soil conditions, and applied loads. Developing more economic as well as efficient foundations in marine environmental conditions is the key scientific challenge to tap the immense renewable energies, especially in deep waters. This research aims to develop such a geotechnical solution by methodically examining a novel foundation system to secure the game-changing floating turbines.