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State-of-the-Art Lecture by Ana Page & Britta Bienen | Geotechnics for Offshore Wind Developments

Offshore wind plays a vital role in the energy transition, with significantly accelerated development required to meet set goals to limit global warming. It is a relatively young industry, with the first offshore wind farm established in 1991, and while many concepts have been borrowed from onshore foundation engineering and offshore oil and gas developments, differences in conditions, size of the seabed area and individual foundations (to name only a few) have resulted in significant evolution of approach and geotechnical solutions for offshore wind developments. This paper captures the state-of-the-art at this point in time and provides an outlook of the innovations needed to accelerate offshore wind build-out, including in established and emerging markets. Highlighting links with other aspects critical to offshore wind developments, the paper focuses on geotechnical solutions, challenges and opportunities from initial project phases of ground model development and foundation concept selection to foundation or anchor design, installation, operation, possible lifetime extension and ultimate decommissioning. Approximately 100 colleagues from academia and industry have directly contributed to this paper through survey responses and in-depth conversations. The picture that emerges is one of innovation, close academic-industry collaboration, continuous evolution and clear identification of opportunities for step changes in improvement.