International partnership secures funding for development of Floating Offshore Substation

The international partnership merges two decades of offshore wind experience from fixed-bottom offshore substations with naval architecture expertise. It seeks to bring a reliable and cost-effective floating offshore substation concept to the market.

COPENHAGEN/ESBJERG, DENMARK / OSLO, NORWAY – Funding to further develop a floating offshore substation (FOSS) concept has been secured by Semco Maritime, ISC Consulting Engineers, Aalborg University, Energy Cluster Denmark and Norway and Sweden-based Inocean. The parties announced their collaboration in 2022 and are now set to further accelerate floating offshore substation development through funding from the Energy Technology and Demonstration Programme (EUDP).

The floating offshore substation (FOSS) is a crucial component in the offshore wind farm industry as deeper ocean sites further from the coastline are to be utilized. Traditional offshore wind farms are installed on the ocean floor, but at depths greater than approximately 80 meters, this method becomes costly and challenging. Between 60-80% of the world's offshore wind energy potential is in areas with depths greater than 60+ meters, which presents a need for an alternative solution to bring the power to shore, such as a floating offshore substation.

“Our team’s goal is to mature our earlier announced FOSS400 design further which will unlock the potential for producing wind energy at sites far from the coastline with deeper ocean depths”, says Tommy Flindt, Senior Director of Technology at Semco Maritime. “The funding will solidify our concept as a scaled basin test at Aalborg University is embedded to validate platform and equipment motions. We are very excited to work on this cutting-edge technology to ensure a reliable and cost-effective floating substation can be brought to the global market.”

“The funding will take our floating offshore substation concept to the next crucial step. We have together with Semco and Inocean developed the FOSS400 based on our knowledge and experience from a proven track record of over 50 offshore substations. We are confident this team will bring a competitive floating substation forward,” says Andreas Laungaard, Vice President of Renewable Energy at ISC Consulting Engineers.

“Based on our experience with our INO^TM series of floating wind turbine foundations together with an extensive track record of integration/interface work related to HVDC substations, we look forward to see the funding accelerate our development of a robust and scalable floating substation concept that will benefit the growing industry,” added Sara Helgeson, MD at Inocean Sweden.

About Semco Maritime A/S
Semco Maritime is an international engineering and contracting business undertaking and solving assignments across the value chain of the global energy sector. The company also helps its customers to seize opportunities in the green transition and to ensure responsible fossil fuel extraction processes. Since 1980, we have applied our specialist competencies as a platform for the work carried out at all stages of offshore and onshore assignments – from preliminary analyses over design, procurement and manufacturing to installation, commissioning, and subsequent service as well as rental of manpower and supply of bespoke components, systems and solutions. Semco Maritime has 1,900 employees, who secure our customers cost-effective project management and operations from our head office in Denmark. www.semcomaritime.com.

About Inocean

Inocean is an affiliated company of Technip Energies and has delivered innovative naval technology to complex marine and offshore projects for more than 25 years. In 2001 we introduced the first floating wind turbine foundation. Our experience has developed to include participation in some of the world’s first and largest offshore wind grid connection projects with capacities of 500-900MW+ through partnership with industry leaders. This gives us a unique competence especially for integration of High Voltage (HV) equipment into the offshore environments.

Inocean delivers Engineering Expertise, Project Management and Interface Management from concept to offshore installation and commissioning, particularly in the business fields of Offshore Wind HVAC & HVDC (High Voltage AC and DC) converter substations and cables for offshore wind fixed and floating concepts. For further information, please see www.inocean.no.

About ISC Consulting Engineers
ISC Consulting Engineers is an engineering consultancy company working worldwide to create value for our clients through innovative engineering solutions. We have been in the offshore wind sectorsince we designed the world’s first offshore substation 20 years ago in 2003 and the offshore business for more than 45 years. Today ISC is one of the leading consulting engineering companies in the offshore wind sector with an extensivetrack record of successful projects worldwide. The track record includes the world’s first offshore substation to the largest offshore substation and today more than 50 offshore substations worldwide..

ISC provides engineering design service solutions within offshore wind regarding HVAC and HVDC substations, offshore WTG foundations, offshore and onshore green hydrogen/PtX and offshore oil & gas.

ISC is based in Denmark with headquarter in Copenhagen and has 230 employees.

For further information, please visit www.isc.dk.

About Energy Cluster Denmark

Energy Cluster Denmark is Denmark’s cluster organization for the entire energy sector. The vision is for Denmark to be a leading green nation in the development and demonstration of innovative and global energy solutions.

Therefore, Energy Cluster Denmark is a neutral, value-creating and member-driven innovation platform for establishing and facilitating innovation collaborations between small and large companies, knowledge institutions and public players throughout the energy sector.

Energy Cluster Denmark works with innovation across the entire energy sector; from energy production and energy infrastructure to energy storage and energy efficiency – with sector coupling, system integration and digitalization as common denominators.

About Aalborg University

AAU ENERGY is a world-class research department within the faculty of Engineering and Science, which is ranked as the 4th best engineering institute of the world in 2018. AAU ENERGY, which is the host of the project, has the top-class scientific capabilities among the other departments of Aalborg University, especially in the field Power Systems. The main strategy of the department is to focus on developing the most advanced energy-related technologies with a certain focus on the concept of future energy systems, which is well-aligned with the current project.

At AAU Energy, the main workforce of this project is Offshore Renewable Energy Systems Research Group. Researchers, involved in this project, have a competent track record in research in the field of modelling of offshore structures, hydrodynamics, control, surveillance and optimization of offshore wind power systems. For further information please visit https://www.energy.aau.dk/rese... further information, please contact:

Semco Maritime A/S: Tommy Flindt, Senior Director, Technology & Market Development, Renewable Energy
Tel. +45 2492 9374, tofl@semcomaritime.com

Inocean: Sara Helgesson, Managing Director, Inocean AB
Tel: +46 31 169 820, she@inocean.se

ISC Consulting Engineers A/S: Andreas Laungaard, Vice President Renewable Energy

Tel: +45 2269 9058, alg@isc.dk

Energy Cluster Denmark : Lau Holm Albertsen, Project Manager

+45 3152 0526; lha@energycluster.dk

AAU Energy: Mohsen Soltani, Associate Professor, Leader of Offshore Renewable Energy Systems

Tel: +45 2184 7943, sms@energy.aau.dk