For the past three years, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre (FOW CoE) has played a crucial role in developing the UK’s floating wind industry to drive economic growth and deliver net-zero.

Since 2019, the FOW CoE has been developing and delivering a portfolio of collaborative project activities across four key areas: Technology Development; Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Construction and Operations; Development and Consent; and Delivering Net-Zero (Enabling Policy). These projects have bestowed deep insight into a range of industry challenges and opportunities and will provide a strong foundation for further growth in the coming years.

The FOW CoE is also looking forward to 2025 and beyond.

As the scale of the floating offshore wind market opportunity grows in the UK and internationally, and the need for accelerated development and deployment increases, the FOW CoE is entering a new phase of development.

In this new phase, the centre will establish a range of much larger-scale targeted project activities, known as strategic programmes. These strategic programmes are being developed and delivered where there is a clear ‘case for intervention’ in defined priority areas. More specifically, strategic programmes are being established in:

• Areas where additional resources are required to ensure industry has access to technologies, knowledge and understanding in advance of deploying the first large-scale projects later this decade.

• Areas of critical importance with respect to project risk reduction.

• Areas where industry has identified an opportunity and desire to work collaboratively with key stakeholders.

• Areas of existing strength in offshore energy and other relevant supply chains.

• Areas where there is significant international supply chain opportunity.

This year will see the FOW CoE launch three strategic programmes, the first of which, Environmental Interactions, was announced at the Global Offshore Wind Conference 2022 in Manchester. Floating wind has a number of unique environmental interactions that must be understood rapidly to support the development of the multiple large-scale projects coming to our shores over the coming decades.

This programme, launched in collaboration with BEIS and Defra,
and guided by a steering group including The Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland, Marine Scotland and Natural Resources Wales, will coordinate the development and delivery of a portfolio of further research projects and enabling actions to address the current knowledge gaps. It is structured in such a way that it can work directly with the broader existing industry programme, augmenting their existing good work in offshore wind environmental interaction.

Two further programmes will be launched at the Floating Offshore Wind 2022 Conference in Aberdeen: Dynamic Cable Systems Technology Development and Qualifications and Mooring Systems Technology Development and Qualifications.

Will Brindley, project engineer at ORE Catapult and project lead of the Dynamic Cable Systems programme, outlined the necessity for such an initiative, stating that: “Dynamic inter-array cable (DIAC) systems are a critical component in any floating offshore wind project. They are a single point of failure in the turbine. Hence cable system failures could result in expensive remedial works as well as turbine downtime.

“Though they only make up a small part of a floating offshore wind project’s CAPEX, effective design, testing and qualification of existing dynamic cable technologies play a critical role in maximising turbine availability and reducing project risk. There is also an opportunity for new technologies to be developed to reduce this risk, and new suppliers to enter the market to increase supply and supply chain competition.”

The primary aim of the programme is to accelerate the development and qualification of key technologies that are required for cost-effective and reliable DIAC systems. It will also support the introduction of new suppliers into the floating wind industry to increase supply chain capacity and competitiveness, as well as facilitate knowledge sharing and targeted research and analysis to address existing knowledge gaps.

The final strategic programme to be launched by the FOW CoE this year will focus on the mooring systems for floating wind. Brindley said: “A number of knowledge gaps exist around the complex representative testing and qualification approaches. In addition, existing supply chain capacity in certain areas is limited with respect to the scale of supply required for the floating wind industry from 2030.”

As a result, the FOW CoE has identified the requirement for the industry to work together to develop improved approaches and associated infrastructures for mooring and anchoring systems and in turn support the creation of a capable and competitive supply chain for floating wind and beyond.

Key to the success of all three of these strategic programmes is the close collaboration between the FOW CoE and key stakeholders across the sector. These collaborators are essential to support the delivery of the programmes in various ways including through active participation, steering and guidance, funding and the provision of relevant expertise.

ORE Catapult will have a large presence at Renewable UK’s Floating Offshore Wind Conference next month where the team will be happy to talk through these programmes in more detail.

If you would like to learn more about how you can be involved in these strategic programmes and be at the forefront of technology development in floating wind, please reach out to head of floating wind Ralph Torr at ralph.torr@ore.catapult.org.uk