The Drop Keel Concept: an Assembly Focused Solution to Commercial Deep Water Floating Wind Turbine Development

风能被证明是一种商业上可行的发电资源。英国正在利用这一机会，将风力涡轮机固定在海岸线50米深的海底，利用其稳定的风力资源。世界上其他沿海地区也在考虑海上风力涡轮机项目，尽管有些地方对固定的海底风力涡轮机来说太深了，但漂浮的风力涡轮机可能提供解决方案。在苏格兰彼得黑德离岸18英里的地方，这样的测试项目正在进行。这个名为“苏格兰风”的项目部署了5个相互连接的浮动涡轮机，为2万户英国家庭提供足够的电力。开发的下一步是设计具有大规模生产商业潜力的浮动基础结构。然后，测试级项目可能会扩大规模，开发浮动风电场，部署数百个相互连接的单元，为世界主要沿海城市提供商业上可行的电力。涡轮机所在的浮动基座的设计仍然是一个挑战。Hywind浮动基地必须在挪威深水峡湾组装，并使用专业的重型浮式起重机进行施工，这增加了项目成本。替代的浮动基地设计带来了不同的施工挑战，例如大宽度，使得使用典型港口的设施进行组装和发射变得困难。此外，英国目前不得不依靠美国、挪威、法国和日本拥有的知识产权来利用这项新技术。CPDSYS有限公司正在研究如何优化浮动风力涡轮机基础的设计和安装。它已经开发了落体龙骨概念，这是一种紧凑的浅吃水设计，阿特金斯工程公司已经分析并确定了具有商业风力涡轮机运行可接受的运行性能和运动特性。斯特拉斯克莱德大学计划对一个容量为10MW的机组进行比例模型水箱试验，随后将进一步分析波浪运动、空气动力学性能和运动控制系统之间的关系。目标是生产一个受英国知识产权保护的全尺寸龙骨基础设计，不仅支持英国更深沿海水域的可再生能源机会，而且满足全球出口市场的需求。CPDSYS还在研究Drop Keel概念如何通过为偏远海域提供电力来源来支持边缘深水油气田，从而帮助开采碳氢化合物，类似于为陆上油井提供动力的千吨级泵。

Wind is proving to be a commercially viable source for generating electrical power. The UK is exploiting this opportunity with its consistent wind resource using wind turbines fixed to the seabed along its coastline up to 50 metres in depth.Other coastal regions around the world are considering offshore wind turbine projects and, despite some being too deep for fixed seabed wind turbines, floating wind turbines may provide the solution.18 miles offshore Peterhead, Scotland, such a test program is in operation. Known as Hywind Scotland, the project deploys five interconnected floating turbines supplying sufficient electricity to power 20,000 UK households.The next step in development is to design floating foundation structures with commercial potential for mass production. Test level projects may then be scaled up to develop floating windfarms deploying hundreds of interconnected units supplying commercially viable electricity to the world's major coastal cities.Designs for the floating bases upon which the turbines stand remain a challenge. The Hywind floating bases must be assembled in deep water Norwegian fjords and specialist heavy lift floating cranes for construction which add to the project cost. Alternative floating base designs present different construction challenges such as large widths that make assembly and launch difficult using facilities found in typical ports. Also, the UK currently has to rely on intellectual property rights owned in the US, Norway, France and Japan to take advantage of this new technology.CPDSYS Ltd is investigating how to optimise floating wind turbine foundation design and intallation. It has developed the Drop Keel concept, a compact, shallow draft design which Atkins Engineering has analysed and identified as possessing operational performance and motion characteristics acceptable for commercial wind turbine operation. Scale model tank tests are planned with Strathclyde University for a 10MW capacity unit followed by further analysis to investigate the relationship between wave motion, aerodynamic performance and motion control systems. The objective is to produce a full scale Drop Keel foundation design protected by UK Intellectual property rights that not only supports renewable power opportunities in the UK's deeper coastal waters but also meets the demands of a global export market.CPDSYS is also investigating how the Drop Keel concept may support marginal deep water oil and gas fields by providing a source of electricity in remote marine locations that could assist with recovery of hydrocarbons similar to the way that pump jacks (nodding donkeys) power onshore oil wells.