Bucket Foundation trial installation in multi-layer soil profile (CT Trial)

Offshore Wind Energy is based on a relatively new technology with significant possibilities for technical

innovations and cost reduction, coupled with the fact that wind resources offshore generally are much

larger and more stable than onshore, there is a potential for future large scale developments.

Today, several types of foundations for offshore wind turbines are being used while numerous technical

solutions for foundations are developed or under consideration at an early research stage. The prevailing

technology today is the monopole i.e a pile hammered down into the seabead. It is at present the most

economical solution for small turbines and smaller water depts.

Offshore wind farms move further out from shore at deeper waters with challenging conditions such as

multi-layered soil and with larger wind turbines – the monopole is increasingly expensive and difficult to

install, which gives the development of new offshore technologies solution great market potential.

UNIVERSAL FOUNDATION is a next generation novel foundation concept that is potentially capable of

delivering significant cost reduction to offshore wind farms.

It is intended that the installation of the bucket foundation will be demonstrated at full-scale in multi-layered

soils including “impermeable” clays and dense sands.

The benefits, as identified by the OWA, include reductions in installation costs (no piling or seabed

preparation, small crane for installation, cheap decommissioning) and fabrication costs (simple monopole

design with no Transition Piece), and the ability to function on a wide range of soil conditions. OWA have

estimated the potential to reduce the total cost of foundations in a wind farm by as much as 30% when

using the UNIVERSAL FOUNDATION structure and it is considered adaptable in 80-90% of the offshore

sites in North Europe.

The overall objective:

• Demonstrate the installation process of a single compartment, pre-buckled skirt, by a series of full scale

trial installations tests. The installations test will be undertaken in a variety of challenging soil conditions.

• Validating and demonstrate novel improvements to handling of large offshore structures which will be

developed in this project.

The strategy is to move the UNIVERSAL FOUNDATION from a R&D phase into commercialization and

industrialization of its services within 2015. If the described milestones are met, the aim is to secure a

contract for a smaller scale project (5 – 10 units) with installation in 2014, leading up to tendering and

securing a large scale project (one full scale offshore wind park) using the bucket foundation with contract

award in 2015. In order to achieve this strategy, this CT Trial project is vital for Universal Foundation.

The competition to develop new foundation technologies is extensive, however the bucked technology is one step ahead of competitors, as it was among those selected by OWA’ s foundation competition.