Comparison of pilot-scale floating offshore wind farms with shared moorings

As floating wind turbine technology matures and wind farms are considered at larger scales in deeper waters, moorings may take a larger share of the costs. In response, floating wind farms could be designed such that the moorings are shared between turbines, using interconnecting mooring lines between adjacent floating offshore wind turbine platforms and also possibly connecting multiple mooring lines to the same anchor. This may reduce the total length of mooring line, the wind farm footprint, and the number of anchors; worthwhile advantages if not overcome by increases in mooring strength requirements. A design algorithm is presented for preliminary sizing of shared mooring systems for pilot-scale floating offshore wind farms. Quasi-static modelling is used to analyze the performance of shared-mooring systems produced by the algorithm. The model accounts for steady wind thrust forces and nonlinear mooring line reactions. A four-turbine floating wind farm is designed and analyzed with three alternative shared-mooring configurations and four water depths. Results are presented in terms of platform displacements, mooring tensions, and cost, providing an initial comparison of shared mooring options and their potential for cost savings over conventional individually-moored configurations.