WHEEL

The main objectives of the project are:

• Deliver at the same time the key advantages of the two main existing floater concepts: full onshore assembly of the floater & WTG like semisubmersible/barge concepts, and low water plane area in operation to ensure high transparency to sea loading, lower motions and cheaper mooring, like spar concepts.
• Compacity and low-draft: design and demonstrate a floating technology that will allow for drastic reduction in the width and draft of the floater, which will translate into benefits during construction, and reduce the required harbour infrastructure, facilitating the export of this European technology to regions with lower infrastructural development.
• Reduced Material Usage and low-carbon.
• Fast mass industrialized production, building on the proven and successful track record of concrete caisson construction.
• No heavy-lift vessels: Ensure full independence from scarce and costly heavy-lift or special purpose vessels during the complete offshore installation process.
• No Active Ballast System (ABS): Design and demonstrate a floater technology that, despite delivering breakthrough reduction in floater size and in material, will provide very high stability and hydrostatic stiffness which make it unnecessary to depend on an ABS for WTG operation.
• On site LCM: Develop and Design patented process and means specifically conceived to allow for efficient Large Corrective Maintenance (LCM) of large WTG components which can be safely performed on the wind farm with no need to fully remove the unit to bring it ashore.
• Scalability: Design and demonstrate a floater technology that is excellently fitted to cope to the clear trend towards ever larger offshore wind turbines, having the capacity to directly adapt based on the same currently existing infrastructure and available construction&installation means.
• Low-Cost: This will be a key contribution to making floating wind energy affordable to society thus contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7.
• Rock Anchors: Deliver an effective anchor system for rocky seabed conditions which make the use of drag anchors or piles unfeasible or unpractical.
• Circular Economy and carbon footprint. The materials, construction and installation methods to be used will allow a substantial reduction of the carbon footprint.
• Mejorar el impacto social de nuestras actividades de investigación: Aunque los objetivos técnicos son Contribute to enhance societal impact of our research activities: Although technical objectives are essential to this project, the WHEEL consortium is also committed to the societal impact that the WHEEL technology -and by extension the offshore wind in general – will have on local population and communities. Therefore, this objective will be focused on improving public acceptance towards wind energy by demonstrating its beneficial impact such as creation of local and qualified jobs.
• Encourage women’s introduction to offshore wind energy sector: According to IRENA’s Wind energy: A gender perspective report, women make up 21% of the global wind energy workforce and 65% of them perceive gender related barriers in the sector. This objective aims to reach female engineers and to involve them in such a new yet consolidated sector as the wind offshore industry.