A consortium led by UK company Morek Engineering has unveiled a design concept for a new class of low-carbon installation vessel for the floating wind market, after the concept completed the first feasibility stage.
The consortium, which gathers Morek Engineering, naval architects Solis Marine Engineering, innovation specialists Tope Ocean, marine operations specialists First Marine Solutions and Celtic Sea Power, was last year awarded funding by the UK government through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition to design the vessel.
Morek Engineering said last year that this would be a first-in-class low-carbon vessel designed specifically to meet the complex installation requirements of floating offshore wind moorings and foundations.
The Future Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW) Installation Vessel (FFIV) design incorporates low-carbon fuels, a hydrodynamically optimised hull and expanded mooring capacity. The consortium partners say these translate into significant time and cost savings compared to current vessels in operation.
The FFIV will work with any of the three main anchor types for floating wind turbines being considered by the industry: drag embedment anchors, which require installation by high bollard pull anchor handling vessels, suction piles and driven piles, which require large subsea cranes to install them into the seabed. In each case, the FFIV meets the requirements of the next phase by installing the mooring lines onto the installed anchors, enabling quick connection to floating foundations towed to the offshore site, according to the consortium.
“Our goal wasn’t simply to retrofit an existing design with greener propulsion, but to pinpoint where we could deliver the greatest carbon reductions in the construction of future floating wind farms. We expect this to be attractive to a wide range of stakeholders in the floating offshore wind industry” , said Bob Colclough , Managing Director of Morek Engineering.
The consortium said on 21 May that it was now advancing the concept toward the next design stage and that it aimed to secure an Approval in Principle (AiP) by a major ship classification society by December 2025.
“At present, the global fleet falls far short of what is required for serialised installation of floating turbines and their infrastructure. This innovative concept is the kind of advanced technology innovation the Floating Offshore Wind sector needs to realise the global pipeline of projects and the clean energy they can deliver” , said Ian Godfrey , Managing Director of Tope Ocean.