This tasks aims at innovations on component level to lower the costs of energy for 10 MW OWT to a competitive level. As jackets are the most relevant substructures for coming large wind turbines in deep water, the target needs to be to reduce their costs, i.e. in terms of design, fabrication and installation, by at least 20% compared to today’s prices. As there are no expectations of major overhaul of the concept itself, the cost savings can only be done by applying innovations at the component level. The component levels within this task cover all relevant topics of future cost-effective, mass-producible designs (e.g. cased joints and industry-standard piles), such as new foundation types (without grout and/or piling), soil-structure-interaction of large piles or suction buckets, innovative transition piece designs or designs consisting out of hybrid materials never used in wind energy before.
In addition, design integration using jacket-specific controls and innovative fabrication and installation processes shall complete the overall cost saving potentials.
In addition to the development of innovative components another major part of this task is their validation by testing. Within the given framework scale-tests of innovative joints and hybrid materials but also validation of soil-structure interactions will be realized. Here the experience of the task members in these areas and links to relevant national projects is highly beneficial and will enable a variety of tests, which will set new standards for coming structural designs.