Beyond Jack-Ups: A Moonshot for Future Offshore Wind Turbine Installation Vessels for an Uncertain Market

Abstract

The offshore wind market is rapidly growing, resulting in increasing wind turbine sizes, increasing distances to port, and a shift to deeper waters. A literature study in this thesis shows that existing wind turbine installation vessels, vessels under construction, and innovative concepts will not be able to install next-generation turbines or that they would have installation bottlenecks, making them cost-inefficient. This goes against the goal of decreasing the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of wind energy, to ensure that offshore wind stays competitive with other energy sources, enabling the energy transition. There is thus a gap between future demand of offshore wind installation vessels and current and near-term solutions. The research proposes a new floating monohull vessel concept, called Moonshot, to fill this gap. Moonshot will thus be different than traditional jack-up or semi-submersible installation vessel options.

In this research, various design strategies were analyzed. Based on the findings, a design strategy is developed to design and analyze Moonshot. A combination of Ulstein Design and Solution B.V.’s Controlled Innovation process and Blended Design were used and extended to develop this new concept. First, the important functions and design aspects of the design were established using Controlled Innovation. Blended Design was then used to create a design space of the design configurations and to explore multiple market scenarios to establish optimal ship parameters for further development. As part of the research, the existing design process and model were modularized and new features were developed to suit wind turbines, assess seakeeping behavior, and explore the design space of the future wind turbine installation vessel.

The results of this research aim to elucidate optimal design parameters across certain market scenarios. Results show how optimizing the design for financial performance, seakeeping behavior, or a combination of the two, influences the optimal design point. With the optimal design ranges, the initial design parameters for the next stage in the design of Moonshot are established. Finally, Blended Design is used to benchmark Moonshot against existing wind turbine installation solutions to assess its performance. A version of Moonshot is developed as a direct competitor for the largest jack-up design available, the NG-20000X. Benchmarking with the jack-up, an SSCV, and Huisman’s WIV concept showed that Moonshot would be a more efficient solution, capable of installing a larger number of turbines per year at a considerably lower cost per megawatt compared to the other solutions.

In summary, this research concludes Moonshot as an innovative concept to address the evolving challenges of offshore wind turbine installation. By combining innovative design strategies, extensive assessment, and optimization, Moonshot emerges as a promising contender in the quest for effective and cost-efficient installation solutions for offshore wind.