Investigating Alternative Application Ranges for Floating Offshore Wind

The current technological developments within the offshore wind industry reveal a trend towards larger wind turbine MW-classes for both bottom-fixed and floating support structures. Furthermore, bottom-fixed designs are modified and enhanced to also serve deeper offshore sites. Apart from these technological developments, another trend of a competitive nature, related to politics and other stakeholders, can be observed: ever-higher targets are specified for offshore wind energy, while national offshore water areas are limited and divided among various stakeholders in terms of their use. This situation raises the following questions, which are discussed in this paper: 1. Should and could floating offshore wind be extended to shallow-water regions? 2. What benefits can be gained when going beyond traditional floating wind technologies, and what does this mean in detail? 3. What are the motivations, challenges, and solutions for coexistence options? The investigations reveal that floating solutions are more than just options for supporting offshore wind turbines at very-deep-water sites. By extending the traditional application ranges of floating wind turbine systems and going beyond traditional floating offshore wind technologies, additional benefits can be reaped, and worldwide climate and renewable energy targets can be met in harmony with other stakeholders.