The majority of existing offshore wind turbines are built on monopile foundations, space-frame foundations (jackets) will be the foundations of choice for most new applications. This will enable wind turbines to be deployed at greater water depth, further from the shore leading to higher wind speeds and increased potential generation capacity per swept area.
However, current manufacturing techniques for turbine jackets are non-serial and particularly labour intensive, a direct consequence of the manual fabrication methods typically used.
The LaserJacket project will assess three innovative thick-section (>60mm) laser welding techniques, which have a high-productivity, are cost-effective, and suitable for the manufacture of thick-section turbine jackets. We will subsequently, down-select a single welding technique which will be further developed and demonstrated for applicability to offshore wind turbine jackets.