Improving the effectiveness of mooring lines and dynamic cables on floating offshore wind farms is the focus of a new project commissioned by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.

The organisation says floating offshore wind presents unique operations and maintenance challenges – and for the technology to successfully transition to commercialisation, industry needs a stronger understanding of component failure modes, the time and cost of repairs and their impact on operational expenses.

ORE Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence will deliver the project alongside Apollo Engineering and DOF Subsea UK.

Sean Snee, floating offshore wind team leader at ORE Catapult, said: “Operating and maintaining a floating offshore wind farm creates challenges not previously faced in fixed offshore wind, including the monitoring and replacement of mooring lines and dynamic cables.

“More data is required to accurately assess key component failures and what leads to them. In identifying preventative measures and innovative technologies, the learnings from this project could reduce the overall cost of floating offshore wind mooring line and dynamic cable repairs and replacement across the UK and internationally.”

The project will provide comprehensive insight into the monitoring and maintenance requirements for floating wind dynamic cable and mooring line components.

Historically, mooring repair costs for oil production assets have exceeded £400m for a single incident, while cable failures have accounted for 70%-80% of UK offshore wind insurance claims.

Will Brindley, lead naval architect at Apollo Engineering, added: “Understanding the specific requirements of mooring and cable repair is essential to minimise floating wind costs. The insight gained from this study will allow the next generation of gigawatt scale arrays to be designed, built, and operated with long-term integrity and maintainability in mind.”

ORE Catapult operates in Glasgow, Blyth, Levenmouth, Aberdeen, the Humber, the East of England, the South-west and Wales.