Load Reduction and Anchor Sharing for Floating Wind Farms
Honeymooring is a grid solution for sustainable planning of floating wind farms. It is cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and enables coexistence with other ocean users. This article describes the technical principles and components of the system and reflects on the developments needed to industrialise it.
By Kasper Sandal, Engineering Specialist, Semar, Norway
The idea of Honeymooring emerged from realising that a large tension-moored buoy is an effective measure to reduce maximum forces in the mooring system for a floating unit. This is achieved by modifying the mooring system’s resulting restoring curve, making it less steep. The fundamental innovation in Honeymooring is that such a tension-moored buoy can be shared by three attached floating units, separated by 120 degrees when seen from above, without increasing the buoy dimensions or maximum anchor loads. Honeymooring is a patented solution developed by Semar. Semar is a Norwegian company providing engineering services, including design, analysis, planning and execution of marine operations.
