Design and Certification of Taut-synthetic Moorings for Floating Wind Turbines
Awardee:
University of Maine
Start Date:
Q1,2021
Technical Challenge Area:
Floating Structure Engineering
Completion Date:
Q1,2024
Synopsis:
UMaine will design, validate through testing, and qualify for use a low-cost taut synthetic rope mooring system for 15MW+ FOWTs for water depths of 45m-80m to alleviate limitations associated with traditional catenary moorings at these depths.
Target Outcomes:
1
A 15MW FOWT design using a taut synthetic mooring system capable of being deployed at intermediate water depths on the east coast with a targeted LCOE of 7¢/kW-hr.
2
This newly designed FOWT taut synthetic mooring technology shall seek to advance to TRL 8 through scaled model testing and full-scale rope testing.
3
Additionally, third party reviews conducted by national labs and offshore classification societies will verify the system's performance and cost effectiveness.