Fig. 5. Detail of WindFloat design. (The figures were reproduced according to the description provided in literature.).
3. The welding and fabrication costs have been rising along withthe rise of the steel cost. Consequently, the structure optimization is an urgent task before the floating foundation can be massively manufactured at the industry level.
(3) WINFLO project
A project named ‘Wind turbine with Innovative design for Floating Lightweight Offshore’ (WINFLO) is coordinated by Nass and Wind industry, with the support provided by NCNS and Vergnet, in 2008 [15]. The project introduced an ‘innovative freefloating platform’, which essentially is a semi-submersible foundation. The wind turbine installed onto the free-floating platform is specifically designed for the project. In addition, an anchoring system, with the constraints suitable for all types of seabed, is added to keep the location of the platform. The system is illustrated in Fig. 6.