Offshore staff
FORNEBU, Norway — The Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) in Norway has awarded Aker Solutions a FEED contract covering new subsea power system technology.
Subsea Collector, said to potentially reduce the costs and complexity of offshore wind farms, will be deployed at the METCentre’s offshore wind test area 10 km from Karmøy, southwest Norway.
This currently has two floating offshore wind turbines, with plans to expand the test area to seven floating offshore wind turbines from 2026.
Subsea Collector’s main components are a 66-kV wet mate connection system provided by Benestad and subsea switchgear with supervisory control and data acquisition from Aker Solutions’ subsea power and automation alliance partner, ABB.
The system connects multiple wind turbines electrically in a star configuration instead of the conventional daisy chain pattern, an arrangement said to provide greater flexibility in offshore wind farm architecture and construction. In addition, the design is claimed to enable reduced cable length per turbine, shorter vessel time and lower installation costs.
Initial calculations indicate achievable cost savings of up to 10% on a 1-GW floating wind farm.
The Windstaller Alliance between Aker Solutions, DeepOcean and Solstad Offshore will perform the installations with Aker Solutions also providing the static export cable to shore.
The METCentre assessed various alternative configurations for its new cable infrastructure before opting for the pilot installation of Subsea Collector to enable expansion of the test site.
01.03.2024
