Context

Usually, offshore wind farms are connected to the land grid via offshore substations using regular topside design. This technology would connect 62% of France’s potential. The remaining 38% represent a technical challenge. Floating offshore wind farms are installed in deeper waters that are too costly for topside design substations. A floating solution could be more relevant, in parallel with the development of dynamic cables supporting higher voltage levels than existing solutions. The latter are necessary for connection to turbines and to the network. The subsea substation also represents a plausible industrial alternative that has not yet been considered for high voltage connection.

Objective

To identify technological bottlenecks and potential solutions which will enable the reduction of the total cost of marine substations by 2025 for commercial floating wind farm projects.

Scientific and technical contents

• Technical feasibility study for floating or subsea substations adapted to ORE
• Feasibility study of the system and the associated maintenance plan
• Economic evaluation of their global ownership cost
• Identification of technological bottlenecks relating to the materials and processes required for innovative substations with a TRL below 5

Resources

LISORE fact sheet (PDF)

Partners and funding

This project is led by France Energies Marines.

The total project budget is €476K.

This project receives funding from France Energies Marines and its members and partners, as well as French State funding managed by the National Research Agency under the Investments for the Future Programme (ANR-10-IEED-0006-31).

Photo credit: AdobeStock / Halberg