Function
The offshore substation foundation supports the topside structure.
What it costs*
About £65 million for a 1 GW floating offshore wind farm, using a jacket foundation for an HVAC offshore substation.
Who supplies them
Bladt, Chantiers De l’Atlantique, Hollandia, HSM Offshore, Lamprell, Navantia, Sembcorp Marine and Smulders.
Offshore substation jackets. Image courtesy of Ørsted. All rights reserved.
Key facts
Offshore substations can either be supported by fixed foundations or floating substructures. Fixed offshore substation foundations are likely to be jackets. These are steel lattice structures with usually three or four legs that are anchored to the sea bed using pin piles or suction buckets.
Floating offshore substations are yet to be commercially proven, therefore early floating offshore wind farms will rely on offshore substations with fixed jacket foundations. Widespread adoption of floating offshore substations is anticipated once the technology is demonstrated at scale, likely in the early to mid-2030s.
Floating offshore substations could use any of the floating substructure types available to support turbines, including barge, semi-submersible, spar, or TLP (see B.2 for further information). The choice of foundation type for floating offshore substations will be based on factors such as project depth, environmental parameters and cost considerations.
What’s in it
- Pin piles or suction buckets
- Secondary steel
- Steel jacket