Project Description

The Concept

The concept is located deep sea, far from shore and consists of two main parts: a floating wind farm and TETHYS Platform. The overall aim is to support the floating wind farm and reduce the lifecycle cost of the plant.

TETHYS integrates Oscillating Water Column wave devices and two wind turbines for harnessing energy. The integration of both devices provides the opportunity of taking advantage of the Wind & Wave Synergy.

TETHYS platform has been conceptualised to perform as an offshore base (built upon the concept by Flaot Incorporated) providing full O&M and installation services to the surrounding floating renewable energy farms, aiming to support the transition from near-shore, shallow waters to deeper waters, further from shore. It is an innovative multi-purpose platform, capable to support all types of offshore renewable farms.

Multi-Purposes

TETHYS accommodates an offshore substation coupled with the main grid, receiving the electricity generated by nearby floating renewable energy farms. It incorporates Operations and Maintenance (O&M) facilities for supporting the accompanied farms, while it is capable to safely and comfortably accommodate personnel in permanent basis. An offshore workshop is included for the on-site assembly and deployment of floating renewable energy devices, while storage facilities are included for the accommodation of the necessary maintenance equipment.

The reason for accommodating O&M and storage facilities is to reduce transportation costs for scheduled maintenance and minimise response time in case of unscheduled maintenance. In case of a major wind turbine failure, wind turbine could be towed to TETHYS instead of the port, talking advantage of the calm-side created at the back of the platform. Once the maintenance has been conducted, the turbine could be towed back. This method, not only reduces the total maintenance costs, but also excludes the need of implementing wind farms close to ports. Consequently, a brand new O&M strategy should be followed. Extended research for floating platforms O&M strategy is required and has been taken into consideration for future work.

Other Purposes Aiming to Enable Industrial Synergies

The TETHYS platform could accommodate research facilities for technological and environmental purposes, it could support aquaculture facilities aiming to decrease the social impact and promote industrial synergies, or it could be used as an offshore electrical network connection hub. A hyper-substation could be utilised, coupled with the main grid, supporting more than one floating farm, decreasing the implementation costs.

All of the above could enable and promote industry synergies to the highest level. Synergies are essential to the rapid expansion of new technologies, while combining the experience of various industries of the same field would aim to optimise current technologies and accelerate their development.