The Dutch offshore wind industry supply chain has successfully grown in recent years, focused primarily on the building and installing of monopile (MP) support structures.
Average turbine sizes have increased steadily, and the maximum economically viable depth of bottom-fixed sites has also increased. These two factors were expected to favour alternative foundation types to MPs, such as jackets, but jackets have lost, rather than gained market share. Design and manufacturing innovations and economies of scale have improved the relative competitiveness of the MP ecosystem up to now, compared to alternatives.
Average turbine rating and average site water depth will continue to increase, particularly as the industry achieves multi-GW scale and the shallower sites get used up.
Long-term outlook on developments in foundation technology provides insight into the nature of future offshore wind foundations through the following:
- Description of the present state of the art (including the outcome of recent research projects) for the most promising alternative support structures for wind farms on sites with an average depth of 40-60 m and 60-100 m. In doing this, also pay attention to possible disruptive technologies.
- Analysis of the LCoE for each foundation technology and the cost reduction potential.
- Indication of the water depth where the business case for alternative support structures starts to become competitive with the business case for fixed bottom support structures and the speed in which potential cost reductions can be realized.
- Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Dutch offshore wind industry (including all links in the supply chain) for the development and rollout of these promising technologies.
- Formulation of recommendations to strengthen the competitive position of the Dutch offshore wind industry on the market for alternative support structures.
Long-term outlook on developments in foundation technology sets out the answers to these tasks, which were carried out through a combination of desk research, high-level design and costing of a set of reference foundation designs at different depths, and interviews.
The work on Long-term outlook on developments in foundation technology was led by BVG Associates with support from Ramboll.