Kincardine Floating Offshore Wind Farm

The Kincardine Offshore Wind Farm is a pioneering development located off the Aberdeenshire coast and at 48MW, was the largest capacity floating wind farm at the time of its development

Kent has been involved with the Kincardine wind farm development in various capacities since 2013. As co-developer with Pilot Offshore Renewables we saw the project through consenting, funding applications and initial concept selection. In 2016 we were appointed as one of designers of the ACS Cobra Semi-Spar concept, the concept selected for initial deployment at the farm.

The ACS Cobra Semi-Spar is a novel concept floating wind turbine combining the benefits of a semi-submersible and spar platform, providing for superior hydrodynamic performance coupled with enhanced suitability for quayside assembly. Due to its low cost and versatility, it was decided to fabricate the hull out of concrete. We were pivotal in demonstrating the technical viability of this very unique concept.

During the design of the semi-spar concept, which was progressed to the equivalent of an advanced FEED level, we were responsible for:

• Global load analysis
• Hydrodynamic analysis
• Intact and damaged stability assessments
• Weight & load management
• Mooring design
• Wave basing testing
• Secondary structures design
• Marine and electrical systems design
• Geophysical & Geotech survey
• CFD analysis
• Safety engineering
• Environmental assessments and consenting

The project required close co-operation with Esteyco, the Spanish design house responsible for the concrete hull, and DNVGL, responsible for the coupled aero-hydro analysis and certification.

A compressed project schedule required us to develop a new approach to design that would have enabled fabrication of the first unit to start in the shortest possible timeframe. This included a greater reliance on CFD to gain greater confidence in the hydrodynamics at early design stages before small scale model tests could be undertaken, and a more rigorous analysis of the design from the outset