Norway’s Aker Solutions has signed a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract with the Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) to pilot new subsea power system technology.
The project will see Aker Solutions provide new power transmission technology, Subsea Collector, for the METCentre’s offshore wind test area which consists of two floating offshore wind turbines located 10 kilometres off the southwestern coast of Karmøy, Norway.
Subsea Collector provides an alternative solution to connect multiple wind turbines electrically in a star configuration instead of the traditional daisy chain pattern, allowing for more flexibility in offshore wind farm architecture and construction.
The design also allows for reduced cable length per turbine and park, as well as less vessel time and installation costs. Aker Solutions claimed that initial findings support total cost savings on a 1GW floating wind farm of up to 10%.
The main parts of the Subsea Collector comprise a 66kV wet mate connection system provided by Benestad and subsea switchgear with supervisory control and data acquisition by subsea power and automation alliance partner ABB.
The installation will be carried out by Windstaller Alliance, an alliance between Aker Solutions, DeepOcean, and Solstad Offshore. Aker Solutions will also provide the static export cable to shore.
