The last turbine for the Hywind Scotland project sets sail from Stord, Norway. Photo: Øyvind Gravås / Statoil
Significant advances have been made in floating offshore wind technologies in recent years, with 80MW of floating wind capacity estimated to be installed in the UK by 2020. Crucial to floating wind’s success is ensuring that the dynamic cables that bring the energy back to land can survive in the harsh environments found far offshore. With greater stresses acting on them from waves and marine currents, dynamic subsea cables are at greater risks of failure than their static counterparts.
In this paper, Catapult research engineer David Young discusses the work undertaken to better understand the failure mechanisms of dynamic subsea cables. And it illustrates how a better understanding of these failures can create models for testing and validating cable configurations proposed for dynamic subsea applications. Ultimately, the aim of this research is to provide greater investor confidence and stimulate further development in offshore renewable energy technologies for both floating wind and wave energy projects. For more Analysis and Insight on floating wind and subsea cables, download Roberts Proskovics‘ paper An Introduction to Risk in Floating Wind: Key Risks and how to Mitigate Them, or Othmane El Mountassir and Charlotte Strang-Moran’s Offshore Wind Subsea Power Cables: Installation, Operation and Market Trends.
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