Fred. Olsen 1848’s Floating Wind Foundation Gets DNV Basic Design Certificate

October 31, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

A floating wind foundation developed by Fred. Olsen 1848 has secured DNV Basic Design Certification after completing its basic design phase in accordance with DNV’s recently updated certification scheme for floating wind, DNV-SE-0422.

Kimon Argyriadis, Director Floating Wind Energy, DNV; Photo source: Fred. Olsen 1848

According to the company, the foundation, dubbed BRUNEL, is one of the few foundation designs in the industry to have received DNV Basic Design Certification.

Norway-based Fred. Olsen 1848 launched the floating offshore wind turbine foundation design in 2022.

BRUNEL is a semi-submersible steel foundation with a modular design of tubulars. According to its developer, the foundation is designed for North Sea conditions.

The foundation features two towers with a forward-leaning angle and a single-point mooring through a turret. The weathervaning function allows for a passive ballast system and a structure that continuously optimises its position towards the wind thrust force, according to Fred. Olsen 1848.

Furthermore, the company says that BRUNEL is designed to comply with the existing global fabrication capacity of offshore wind towers and monopiles and to be suitable for serial production and enabling a high deployment rate.

Throughout the design process, Fred. Olsen 1848 collaborated with several contractors. Ramboll was the main contractor working as an independent engineering consultant for BRUNEL Floating Foundation and has been responsible for performing the engineering of the basic design certification. Seasystems has been the provider of mooring- and turret technologies alongside MOOG Focal providing high-voltage swivels, and 7Waves has contributed with expertise on the primary steel design.

With the DNV Basic Design certification now in place, Fred. Olsen 1848 has acquired acceptance for the comprehensive design methodologies and development for primary steel design, secondary steel, mooring, manufacturing, assembly and integration, logistics, transportation, and installation, as well as operations and maintenance philosophies, according to the company.

Securing acceptance for these methodologies means the foundation is now positioned for the execution of site-specific detail design endeavours, Fred. Olsen 1848 says.

“Achieving the Statement of Compliance for Basic Design is an important step for BRUNEL. This certification module has been a follow up from the concept certification performed in 2022 and has shown that Brunel has matured. We are looking forward to continued certification of Brunel in the next development phases. As designs and technologies develop, ensuring safety is paramount for floating offshore wind projects in securing project finance and demonstrating operational applications”, said Anne Lene Haukanes Hopstad, DNV’s Project Manager.