A Monolithic Concrete Platform for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
A novel concept of a floating platform for supporting wind turbines (named WindCrete) has been developed at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in order to substantially reduce the capital expenditure or CAPEX for floating offshore wind turbines. The concept is based on a monolithic full concrete structure, including the tower and the floater, which also allows a significant reduction of the operating expense, or OPEX. The basics of the concept are presented in this article, including the advantages of concrete in the marine environment, the main dimensions and the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic properties of WindCrete.
By Climent Molins and Alexis Campos, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain