PELASTAR™ TENSION-LEG PLATFORM.
In 2012, Glosten was selected by the Energy Technologies Institute to design a floating offshore wind platform system demonstrator. The goals of the project were to accelerate the market introduction of floating foundations for deep water offshore wind farms and to break down technical barriers for deployment. The result was a front-end engineering level design of the PelaStar™ floating foundation supporting an existing full-scale 6 MW offshore wind turbine.
The viability of offshore floating wind is based on demonstrating the lowest cost of energy of all conventional low-carbon power sources. This is possible by reaching better wind resources with larger, more powerful, and more efficient turbines but requires incorporating lower cost foundations and reducing balance-of-plant costs. These costs are controlled by providing a floating foundation with minimal structural weight that maximizes turbine availability by minimizing turbine wear due to platform motion. The system must also minimize maintenance costs by avoiding expensive interventions with large service vessels.
