Here is an article of synthesis:
http://energiesdelamer.blogspot.com/201 ... lates.html
Floating wind: all platforms
EUROPEAN UNION - 29 / 07 / 2011 - 3B Tips -
By Francis Rousseau
Floating wind turbines allow electricity to be generated wherever the seabed is between 50 and 300 m, which can sometimes happen very close to the coast, when the continental shelf suddenly plunges, as is the case in many European countries on the Atlantic coast. At these depths, installed wind power is not possible and only floating wind power presents a reliable solution. This concept of a floating deep water wind turbine was first officially proposed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) in 1972. According to a US report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): "It has It was not until the mid-1990s, that is to say some time after the onshore wind industry was well established, for this research subject to be taken up by the scientific community ". Until 2003, the installation of offshore wind turbines was limited by the use of "laid" type foundations, the use of which is reserved for water depths not exceeding 30 meters. Since 2003, many developers around the world have taken an interest in floating wind platforms. Today there are four main types of floating deep water wind platforms that are a very different technology from the foundations laid that I talked about in a June 1, 2011 article.
4 LARGE TYPES OF FLOATING FOUNDATIONS
1. "Spar Platform": submerged foundation with stabilized ballast, fitted with catenary anchors allowing it to be fixed by simply hooking it to the seabed.
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2. TLP platform (Tension Leg Platform) or "platforms on stretched legs": submerged platform connected to the seabed by tensioned cables (hence the name) anchored to pillars half-buried in the bottom sailor and not to catenary anchorages.
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3. "Semi-sub" or stabilized buoyancy platform. It is a platform which, as its name suggests, is semi-submerged and therefore semi-visible on the surface; it uses a “barge” type device anchored to the bottom by cables using catenary anchors.
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4. Free Floating Platform (FFP)
The French floating wind turbine WINFLO developed by DCNS, Nass & Wind, Saipem and In Vivo Environnement with the support of IFREMER Brest and ENSTA, is also part of this semi-submersible category with catenary anchoring but with sufficiently large variants. to bring it into the separate category of "Free Floating Platform (FFP)".
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