KEY OPPORTUNITY FLOATING FOUNDATIONS

There is a commercial opportunity to establish a manufacturing facility in Scotland for the serial production of floating substructures to serve the growing pipeline of floating wind projects.

With floating offshore wind, the turbine is installed on a steel, concrete, or hybrid floating substructure, which is anchored to the seabed by mooring systems consisting of flexible anchors, chains or steel cables.

Substructures to date have been largely bespoke with a wide range of designs. The four most prominent substructure types are:

Scotland is home to a number of companies capable of fabricating substructure components but, as yet, there is no single company looking at serial substructure fabrication or assembly. There is an opportunity for a company with expertise in the fabrication and assembly of large steel or concrete structures to capitalise on this lucrative gap in the supply chain.

In addition to a clear pipeline of commercial scale projects unlocking economies of scale, cost reduction will be driven by a combination of continued technology optimisation and innovation, increasing standardisation and targeted port investment.

Collaborate with Scotland’s leading innovation ecosystem to realise cost advantages from advances in fabrication and assembly facilities and processes, such as advanced manufacturing and robotic welding.