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Recently, Aker Solutions has inked an initial engineering and design (FEED) agreement with the Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) in Norway to demonstrate the potential for offshore wind farms to cut expenditures and complexity. METCentre's offshore wind test area is located 10 kilometres off the southwestern coast of Karmy in Norway which today consists of two floating offshore wind turbines and will be enlarged to seven floating wind turbines by 2026.
The Subsea Collector is an innovative power transmission technology that links numerous wind turbines in a star configuration rather than a conventional daisy chain arrangement. The key components of the subsea collector are a Benestad 66kV wet-mate connection system and ABB subsea switchgear with supervision control and data acquisition. "The first-of-its-kind system has been developed following the proven success of similar technologies in large installation projects and Aker Solutions' experience in subsea power solutions for subsea gas compression and more recently for floating offshore wind like Equinor's Hywind Tampen," according to a recent press release by Aker Solutions.
The innovative design strengthens wind farm development flexibility and may result in significant cuts in cable size, vessel duration, and setup expenses. It has been estimated to lower the cost of offshore transmission infrastructure. According to Aker Solutions, initial findings support total cost savings on a 1 GW floating wind farm of up to 10 percent.
"The Subsea Collector exemplifies true industry collaboration." We want to overcome existing offshore wind sector difficulties by combining Aker Solutions' extensive subsea knowledge with our partner's established control and connectivity technologies. "We hope that this project will result in a field-proven system that will benefit the industry for many years to come," said Jo Kjetil Krabbe, Aker Solutions' executive vice president of Power Solutions.
Windstaller Alliance, a collaboration of Aker Solutions, DeepOcean, and Solstad Offshore, will carry out the installation. Aker Solutions will additionally supply the static export cable to shore. "This breakthrough project will help shape the infrastructure in future large-scale floating wind farms." The technology is being developed, and the project highlights how Norwegian subsea experience from the oil and gas sector drives worldwide innovation in floating offshore wind," said Arvid Nesse, CEO of METCentre and Norwegian Offshore Wind.
Read the Press release here- https://www.akersolutions.com/news/news-archive/2024/aker-solutions-to-pilot-floating-wind-power-hub/
