ELICAN: Self-Installing Telescopic Substructure for Low-Cost Craneless Installation of Complete Offshore Wind Turbines. Deep Offshore 5MW Prototype

At ELICAN, a strong team of complementary European companies, with a world-leading presence in the wind energy industry, join forces to provide the market with a disruptive, high-capacity, cost-reducing integrated substructure system for deep offshore wind. The technology is uniquely suited to solve the technical and logistical challenges of the industry as it moves into deeper waters with larger turbines, while enabling dramatic cost reductions.

This project will design, build, certify and fully demonstrate in the operational environment a prototype deepwater substructure for Adwen’s 5mW offshore wind turbine to be installed off the south-east coast of Las Palmas (Canary Islands). It will become the first fixed-bottom offshore wind turbine in the whole of Southern Europe and the first worldwide to be installed without the need for heavy lift vessels.

The revolutionary substructure consists of an integrated telescopic, self-installing tower and foundation made of precast concrete that allows the substructure and wind turbine to be installed offshore without the need for cranes. This overcomes the restrictions imposed by the dependence on heavy lift vessels. It will allow a pre-assembly on the ground of the complete system which is key to generate a highly industrialised low-cost manufacturing process with fast production rates and optimised risk control.

The main benefits offered by this innovative technology are:

• Significant cost reduction (> 35%) compared to current solutions.direct scalability in terms of turbine size, water depth, infrastructure and installation means.
• Complete independence from heavy lift vessels.
• Excellently suited for rapid industrialised construction.
• Robust and durable concrete substructure to reduce operating costs and improve asset integrity.
• Suitable for most soil conditions, including rocky bottoms.
• Increased environmental sustainability in terms of impact on marine life and carbon footprint.