Spanish engineering company SAITEC asked ECN to quantify the benefits of its floating wind concept – Swinging Around Twin Hull (SATH) – and to demonstrate the concept’s added value.
SAITEC’s solution has a single mooring point. Two twin concrete hulls are fastened to the mooring point with a bearing, allowing the platform to swing around this point.
ECN calculated that connecting to one single point shortens the installation time and makes it easier and cheaper to bring back the turbine to harbour for replacement of large components. Another cost and time reduction lies in the fact that all platform and turbine equipment is assembled at the harbour, thus reducing offshore operations to a minimum. Also, the use of concrete instead of steel has positive impact on the maintenance costs because effects such as corrosion will not occur.
Luis González-Pinto , Head of Renewable Energy at SAITEC, said: “The expertise of ECN helps us in quantifying the added value of the SATH platform. Floating platforms will only have a future if they are able to achieve a competitive levelized cost of energy.”