Wind Energy Ships: Global Analysis of Operability

Abstract

Most offshore wind farms are bottom-fixed at sites with less than 50 m of water depth. For deeper waters, floating platforms are economically viable and, for many countries that have steep continental shelves, this is the only option for developing offshore wind farms. If wind energy is being harvested far offshore in deep waters (more than 200 m depth and hundreds of km from the coast), one possible alternative is the use of Floating Production and Storage (FPS) sailing ships that navigate through the ocean using wind force and utilize part of the harvested wind power to produce and store fuel. These ships are called “energy ships”. The objective of this paper is to carry out a qualitative determination of the global marine areas suitable for the operation of energy ships. To that purpose, wind and wave ship operation ranges have been defined and global databases of wind and waves have been used to obtain statistics of operational parameters. From the global analysis carried out the most promising areas and seasons for energy ship operation have been identified and qualified in terms of the aforementioned operational parameters.