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This paper develops a methodology to determine the installation costs of a floating wind farm installed offshore, the value of which depends on the type of floating offshore wind platform installed. In this context, several costs in the installation process have been defined: installation of the offshore wind generators, installation of the floating offshore wind substructures, installation of the anchoring and mooring, installation of the electric systems and the commissioning or start up of the floating offshore wind farm. Furthermore, several installation scenarios have been taken into consideration regarding the shipyard surface and draught, the number of lifts, the transport, the mooring strategy and the substation configuration. The method, tested for the region of Galicia and for three sorts of floating substructures: spar, semisubmersible and tensioned leg, allows to compare different alternatives of installing a floating offshore and the most important aspects of the costs proposed. It can be useful for investors who decide to use this type of offshore renewable energy in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the influence that location has in the life-cycle of a floating offshore wind farm. For this purpose several steps have been considered: determination of the location variables, formulation of the costs whose value depends on these location variables, development of the location economic indexes based on the Levelized Cost of Energy and the Cost of Power, and introduction of the restricted areas where farms cannot be installed. This method will be applied to the particular case of a floating offshore wind farm with semisubmersible platforms and located in the Galician area (North-West of Spain). Results indicate the best location areas where a floating offshore wind farm can be installed in the region selected. This methodology will be useful to determine the importance of the location settings in terms of a floating offshore wind farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future of offshore wind energy will be in deep waters. In this context, the main objective of the present paper is to develop a sensitivity analysis of a floating offshore wind farm. It will show how much the output variables can vary when the input variables are changing. For this purpose two different scenarios will be taken into account: the life-cycle costs involved in a floating offshore wind farm (cost of conception and definition, cost of design and development, cost of manufacturing, cost of installation, cost of exploitation and cost of dismantling) and the most important economic indexes in terms of economic feasibility of a floating offshore wind farm (internal rate of return, net present value, discounted pay-back period, levelized cost of energy and cost of power). Results indicate that the most important variables in economic terms are the number of wind turbines and the distance from farm to shore in the costs’ scenario, and the wind scale parameter and the electric tariff for the economic indexes. This study will help investors to take into account these variables in the development of floating offshore wind farms in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]