How to float a wind turbine

Far-offshore wind turbines are attractive in view of harnessing high-speed winds and reducing impact on population. When the sea is hundreds of metres deep, drilling wind turbines down to the seabed is too expensive. Today??s bottom-mounted foundations could be replaced by floating platforms, which can minimise the lateral wave-loads acting on the wind turbine and reduce the foundation cost in deep water. Computer models capable of calculating the motion of a full floating wind turbine are at an early stage of development. An efficient strategy to minimise the computational cost is also lacking. This contribution highlights how the motion of a floating wind turbine, and its interaction with the ocean, can be predicted by means of computer-model simulations.