| How it works |
| Growth |
| Benefits |
| Our projects |
| FAQs |
An offshore wind turbine weighs a thousand tonnes, is nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower, and has blades as long as football pitches. How do we make these colossal structures float and stay stable amid high winds and strong swells?
The answer is huge, buoyant floating foundations and multiple solid anchor points on the ocean floor. There are currently a few different designs suited for different environments.
1. Tension-leg platform |
Pontoon based structure anchored with a tensioned mooring system that goes straight down to the seabed. Advantages and disadvantages: |
2. Semi-submersible |
Column and pontoon based structure anchored to the seabed with a spread mooring system. Advantages and disadvantages: |
3. Barge |
A hull structure with a large surface area in contact with the water – the principle is like that of ship design. Anchored to the seabed with a spread mooring system. Advantages and disadvantages: |
4. Spar buoy |
A vertical cylindrical structure with ballast at the bottom for stability. Anchored to the seabed with a spread mooring system. Advantages and disadvantages: |
As much as 80% of the global offshore wind resource potential is in waters with depths exceeding 60 metres, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s why at Ørsted we’re expanding into floating wind, as a complement to our seabed-fixed business. It’s another step towards our vision of creating a world run entirely on green energy.
We believe in trying new things. When we built the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991, people thought it wouldn’t work. Offshore wind now brings renewable power to millions, and we’re proud to have the largest installed capacity in the world.
We will bring this experience to floating wind – and help to make it cost-competitive and sustainable. We’re looking forward to working with others to make this happen.
Floating technology is still relatively expensive because it’s new. It’s in its early stages and has not been deployed at a commercial scale – yet. But with our experience, we can help make floating wind commercially viable.
We must work together across the industry, partnering up with supply chain companies and combining our expertise to scale construction. We will need policy support and major government investment in areas such as new deep-water port infrastructure to spur the private investment needed.
We expect the first large utility-scale floating wind farms to become operational around 2030. By the mid-2030s, more than 25 GW of floating wind turbine capacity could be installed globally. In a short time, construction costs could approach those for seabed-fixed wind farms.
Read our white paper Deeper waters, Stronger Winds to find out how we can scale floating wind sustainably and revolutionise the future of offshore wind worldwide.
Floating wind brings offshore power generation to deeper waters, which are abundant. Regions where seabed-fixed turbine foundations are impractical can now look into floating foundations – from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California to Japan. And in deeper waters, wind speeds are often greater, meaning more power.
A modern 1 GW seabed-fixed wind farm creates more than 18,400 direct and indirect jobs in development, construction, operation, and decommissioning. We expect floating wind to be similar.
Each wind power solution has its benefits. Floating turbines can be installed less noisily, with smaller vessels, and further from bird migration routes. Seabed-fixed turbines can host biodiversity projects such as ReCoral.
We aim to develop floating offshore wind projects and partnerships at scale, to scale the technology and bring down costs. We’re seeking floating offshore wind opportunities in all the markets where we are present, and exploring opportunities in the new markets enabled by floating wind.
