United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Oxford Uni foundation study begins testing

UK: A team led by Dong Energy and Oxford University is installing its first test foundation as part of a programme aiming to reduce the cost and weight of monopiles.

The PISA project is looking to cut costs by reducing monopile size
The PISA project is looking to cut costs by reducing monopile size

The Pile Soil Analysis (PISA) project is being run under the Carbon Trust's Offshore Wind Accelerator programme. It will test smaller monopiles in a bid to reduce the cost of manufacturing the foundations, without compromising load-carrying capacity.

Steel thickness for traditional monopiles is approximately 100 milimetres. Dong believes a small reduction in thickness could cause a "significant contribution" to cutting offshore costs.

The first lighter monopile, manufactured by Bladt Industries and DanSteel, will be installed this week at a site near Cowden, northeast England.

The project will test 20 monopiles across two onshore sites; Cowden, and Dunkirk in northern France.

Backers of the study also includes RWE, Vattenfall, Statoil, Statkraft, SSE and Scottish Power with additional support from Imperial College, London and University College Dublin.

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