4C Offshore Empowering Intelligence

TetraSpar Demo now fully operational

4C Offshore | Tom Russell
By: Tom Russell 01/12/2021 RWE

The
TetraSpar Demonstrator floating wind project has officially been commissioned and is in operation off the Norwegian coast. The project will now enter its test phase, where data on the performance and characteristics of the TetraSpar floating foundation will be captured and analysed.

Earlier this summer, the TetraSpar demonstrator reached its destination at the METCentre test site after a tow of 360 nautical miles from the port of assembly in Grenaa, Denmark. The TetraSpar foundation is a tubular steel structure with a suspended keel. The floating platform, including the 3.6 MW turbine, is installed in waters as deep as 200 metres.
 

The
TetraSpar Demo is being developed by Stiesdal Offshore Technology, TEPCO Renewable Power, Shell, and RWE. It was installed at the Marine Energy Test Centre (Metcentre) 10km from shore at a water depth of 200m. The project features a Siemens Gamesa 3.6 MW turbine mounted on a tetrahedral structure assembled from tubular steel components.

The components for the were manufactured by Welcon A/S in Give, Denmark and assembled at the port of Grenaa, Denmark. The turbine then lifted installed on the completed floating foundation structure at the Port of Grenaa, Denmark before being towed to site. It is anchored to the seabed via three anchor lines.
 

Henrik Stiesdal, Chairman of the board of directors at TetraSpar Demonstrator ApS, said: “This is a huge milestone for the project. First and foremost, we are happy to have completed all phases of the project without any significant safety incidents, even though we have deployed a very innovative project with a range of world’s first elements. The deep experience of our project partners has been invaluable in this regard. Next, we are obviously very pleased that the new technologies, a few years ago only ambitions and design proposals, have now come to fruition. All indications are that our key target, to accelerate the industrialization of floating offshore wind, can actually be met, not only at prototype level but at large scale.”


Thomas Brostrom, Senior Vice President Renewables at Shell, said: “We are extremely proud to have reached this important milestone and to have contributed to the realization of a truly innovative floating concept. Shell is committed to further develop the floating wind industry globally by providing technical and financial support to promising concepts such as Tetraspar. Ultimately, we hope to deploy floating wind technology globally and at large scale to enable further decarbonization of our customers’ activities and for society as a whole.”


Seiichi Fubasami, President of TEPCO RP, said: “There are high expectations throughout the world for floating offshore wind farms. One of the most challenging endeavors underway is the TetraSpar floating foundation demonstration project. Each stage in the process, from manufacturing and assembly, to launch and deployment, has done well, and we are very excited now to have the demonstrator in operation, thereby reaching an important milestone towards commercial operation of the TetraSpar.
"In Japan we expect more floating offshore wind farms to be built from 2030 and onward as we aim for realization of carbon neutrality in 2050. The TetraSpar concept can be utilized in Japan’s natural conditions and enables the easy construction of regional supply chains thereby playing an important role as we aim to transition to renewable energies as baseload power sources. This is a promising new technology for the future and we expect the TetraSpar floater to perform well during operation off the coast of Norway over the next couple of years.”


Sven Utermöhlen, CEO Offshore Wind of RWE Renewables, underlined: “This project has been both challenging and inspiring. The spark of genius with the TetraSpar concept is its industrialized manufacturing and assembly methodology, which we think is crucial for long-term cost reduction. Our deep involvement in this project means we have now gathered firsthand evidence about how this approach can be scaled up to commercial projects.


"This project has taught us more crucial lessons than we could have ever expected, and it has been great to work so collaboratively with our project partners to safely deliver such an innovative technology. It has been particularly interesting to see how important it is to transfer RWE’s experience in seabed-fixed offshore wind into our floating projects. This project’s success motivates us to keep on delivering cutting edge innovation.”



For more information on floating offshore wind farms worldwide, click here.

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