Analysis of Global Dynamics and Estimation of Annual Energy Production of Floating Wind Turbines

As most promising onshore sites are now saturating, Floating Offshore Wind is gaining growing importance within European energy policies and it is attracting the interest of most operators. In fact, Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT) give the opportunity to exploit sites further offshore in larger areas with higher and more constant wind intensity, yielding an increase of Annual Energy Production (AEP). Considering the multitude of floating concepts and the uncertainty in the energy produced by a wind turbine rotor subject to the large movements permitted by the floating foundation, this paper presents a study aimed at assessing the most common different floating concepts in terms of global dynamic response and AEP. Two sites have been selected for the study: the first one in the Mediterranean Sea, the second one in the North Sea. These locations are promising due to the high energy yield potential associated with significant average yearly wind speed.