Present and Future of Floating Offshore Wind

Abstract

[Abstract] Europe, USA and Japan are positioning for offshore wind renewable energy becomes an option in order to reduce their energy dependence on fossil fuels. This is especially a key factor in countries that does not have its own fossil fuel resources. Given the characteristics of our continental shelf, it is expected that these platforms for harnessing the wind energy will be installed in locations away from the coast (offshore) and in 50+ deeper waters. This will lead to a new scenario that request new concepts and engineering solutions based on become floating structures (moored and anchored to the seabed). These new requirements and the economical constrains of this type of energies has made that nowadays we are in a stage of proof of concepts without a clear candidate to become the dominant technology in the near future. Therefore, in this chapter an overview of present and future trends in floating offshore wind technology is presented. The objective of this overview is to structure the different concepts and clarify the advantages and disadvantages of each.