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Concrete Support Structures for Offshore Wind Turbines: Current Status, Challenges, and Future Trends

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  • Alexandre Mathern

    (Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Sven Hultins Gata 6, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
    Research and Innovation, NCC AB, Lilla Bomen 3c, SE-41104 Gothenburg, Sweden)

  • Christoph von der Haar

    (grbv Ingenieure im Bauwesen GmbH & Co. KG, Expo Plaza 10, 30539 Hannover, Germany)

  • Steffen Marx

    (Institute of Concrete Structures, Technische Universität Dresden, August-Bebel-Straße 30/30A, 01219 Dresden, Germany)

Abstract

Today’s offshore wind turbine support structures market is largely dominated by steel structures, since steel monopiles account for the vast majority of installations in the last decade and new types of multi-leg steel structures have been developed in recent years. However, as wind turbines become bigger, and potential sites for offshore wind farms are located in ever deeper waters and ever further from the shore, the conditions for the design, transport, and installation of support structures are changing. In light of these facts, this paper identifies and categorizes the challenges and future trends related to the use of concrete for support structures of future offshore wind projects. To do so, recent advances and technologies still under development for both bottom-fixed and floating concrete support structures have been reviewed. It was found that these new developments meet the challenges associated with the use of concrete support structures, as they will allow the production costs to be lowered and transport and installation to be facilitated. New technologies for concrete support structures used at medium and great water depths are also being developed and are expected to become more common in future offshore wind installations. Therefore, the new developments identified in this paper show the likelihood of an increase in the use of concrete support structures in future offshore wind farms. These developments also indicate that the complexity of future support structures will increase due to the development of hybrid structures combining steel and concrete. These evolutions call for new knowledge and technical know-how in order to allow reliable structures to be built and risk-free offshore installation to be executed.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandre Mathern & Christoph von der Haar & Steffen Marx, 2021. "Concrete Support Structures for Offshore Wind Turbines: Current Status, Challenges, and Future Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-31, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:7:p:1995-:d:530195
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Moussavi, S. & Barutha, P. & Dvorak, B., 2023. "Environmental life cycle assessment of a novel offshore wind energy design project: A United States based case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    3. Meng, Debiao & Yang, Shiyuan & Jesus, Abílio M.P. de & Zhu, Shun-Peng, 2023. "A novel Kriging-model-assisted reliability-based multidisciplinary design optimization strategy and its application in the offshore wind turbine tower," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 407-420.
    4. Yunsup Shin & Thomas Langford & Kyunghwan Cho & Jongheon Park & Junyoung Ko, 2021. "Applicability of Concrete–Steel Composite Piles for Offshore Wind Foundations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-15, August.
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    6. Govindan, Kannan, 2023. "Pathways to low carbon energy transition through multi criteria assessment of offshore wind energy barriers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).

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