Welding research could cut cost of offshore wind farms

A new welding method for offshore wind turbine foundations could cut the cost of wind farm fabrication, researchers have claimed.

Led by the Belgian Research Centre for Application of Steel (OCAS), an international project will investigate single-sided welding, which researchers hope could replace the preferred double-sided welding method used across the industry.

“If found to be successful, this new welding methodology could help ease bottlenecks as governments around the world seek to deliver on ambitious renewable energy targets, often stalled by construction times,” said an announcement by the UK-headquartered Carbon Trust, which is taking part in the research via its Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) programme.

The research project, which will run until 2025, will look at the viability of single-sided welds in tubular joints for offshore structures.

“We are looking forward to determining the fatigue performance of single-sided welds in their full scale, whereby we aim to increase productivity and reduce cost of offshore wind foundations further, on both monopile attachments and jacket foundations,” said Philippe Thibaux, staff manager of application and solutions at OCAS.

The members hope that a successful outcome could see single-sided welding become the industry standard, potentially speeding up and cutting the costs of fabrication.

The project will conduct 15 fatigue tests across different types of large-scale structures, as well as a number of small-scale fatigue tests to determine detectable flaw size. This will include numerical simulations and physical testing to replicate the impact on the weld over a structure’s 25-year lifespan.  

It is funded by a partnership of EDF Renewables, Parkwind, Scottish Power Renewables, Shell, SSE Renewables, TotalEnergies and Vattenfall, and is being delivered by OCAS in collaboration with foundation manufacturer Iemants. The project also received funding from the NextGenerationEU programme, through the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Enterprise.

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