A consortium led by Morek Engineering has unveiled its design concept for a new vessel class for the floating offshore wind (FLOW) market, having completed the first feasibility stage.
Consortium partners include naval architects Solis Marine Engineering, innovation specialists Tope Ocean, marine operations specialists First Marine Solutions, and Celtic Sea Power.
The project is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 4, funded by the UK Department for Transport and delivered by Innovate UK. The round is a £206m ($276m) initiative focused on developing the technology necessary to decarbonise the country’s maritime sector.
The Future FLOW Installation Vessel (FFIV) design incorporates low-carbon fuels, providing fuel efficiency advantages, a hydrodynamically optimised hull and expanded mooring capacity. This should translate into time and cost savings compared to the current vessels in operation.
The vessel concept focuses on a section of the floating wind installation process that is yet to be optimised. It will work with any of the three main anchor types for floating wind turbines being considered by the industry – drag embedment anchors, which require installation by high bollard pull anchor handling vessels, suction piles and driven piles, which require large subsea cranes to install them into the seabed.
Regardless of the type, the vessel meets the requirements of the next phase by installing the mooring lines onto the installed anchors, enabling quick connection to floating foundations towed to the offshore site.
To maximise mooring line capacity, the vessel has a large below-deck cable tank for synthetic mooring ropes as well as large chain lockers.
The consortium is advancing toward the next design stage in which it will focus on the equipment for handling large quantities of synthetic ropes, weather-limit analyses, and regulatory and design challenges for methanol propulsion systems. The target is to secure an approval in principle from a major ship classification society by December 2025.
“At present, the global fleet falls far short of what is required for serialised installation of floating turbines and their infrastructure. This innovative concept is the kind of advanced technology innovation the floating offshore wind sector needs to realise the global pipeline of projects,” said Ian Godfrey of Tope Ocean.
