challenged families and communities. We need to keep the debate firmly open about how to best provide that affordable and sustainable way of powering the green world tomorrow.” The UK leads the world in offshore wind. Between 2016 and 2021 over £19 billion has been invested – and with Scottish Power Renewables’ proposed East Anglia Hub of approximately 2690 next-generation turbines potentially generating up to 3.1 GW, there is no shortage of appetite for growth. Across the Atlantic, Vineyard Wind is building the US’s first utility scale offshore wind energy project off the coast of Massachusetts – one that will generate clean, renewable, affordable energy for over 400 000 homes and businesses, while also reducing carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tpy. In what seemed like only moments after President Joe Biden sat at his desk for the first time in the Oval Office, an ambitious goal was announced for the US to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030. Hitting this target could trigger more than US$12 billion/y in capital investment, creating over 40 000 jobs,
plus a further 30 000 or more jobs in communities supported by offshore wind activity. The power created will meet the demand of more than 10 million US homes for a year. Taiwan has ongoing projects with a combined capacity of 5.5 GW that are due to be completed by 2025, whilst Vietnam is looking to produce over 11 GW of offshore wind energy by 2025. Three fundamental drivers for the design of offshore wind farms have, for a variety of historical reasons, evolved separately; the marine conditions (metocean), the wind conditions (atmosphere, energy production), and soil conditions (seabed and ground properties). This perhaps results from the way energy production grew with the onshore wind industry, whereas soil and metocean evolved with the coastal engineering and offshore world. There are many synergies between soil, metocean, and the wind world, but until now they have been almost distant cousins. It is the core competence of Wood Thilsted to bring these together to create a universal language.
Combined metocean, wind, and soil expertise is paramount Each site is different and presents its own unique challenges, thus having the combined metocean, wind, and soil expertise is paramount. Wood Thilsted takes on technically challenging areas such as those with tropical cyclones and poor soil conditions in Asia, hurricanes in the US, icing in the Baltic, or common worldwide seismic areas. Armed with the right knowledge, it is then possible to finely balance the design of an offshore wind farm to achieve maximum power production at the expense of the least amount of material and resources. So, in achieving global net zero, what are the best foundation designs that offshore wind can offer? Is it a straight choice between monopiles, which currently account for over 80% of installations – or jackets and floating foundations, which according to many, will increase in demand as offshore wind projects move to deeper waters, and the turbines increase in size?
Decreasing the LCOE
Figure 2. For the most efficient use of steel, monopiles are by far the main choice.
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Decreasing the LCOE is the best service that can be provided for the wind industry and the world at large. Offshore wind has plenty of room to improve on this. The choice between monopile, jacket, or floating foundations does depend on the location and its conditions – and as detailed designers, there is never any compromise with safety. The actual amount of steel used for a monopile is about the same as a jacket, but jackets have far more in the way of components,
