Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016)   Shipbuilding and Ocean Development
Technical Prospects

Development of Offshore Wind Turbine Floater that Blends into Japanese Waters - Evaluation of the Validity for Design and Applied Methods for V-shaped Semi-submersible Floating structure -

MASAO KOMATSU
HITOSHI KUMAMOTO
MAKOTO OHTA
HIROSHI TANAKA
HIDEO MORI
SATOSHI MIYAZAKI

In the "Fukushima Floating Offshore Wind Farm Demonstration Project" in which Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has taken part, the 7MW floating offshore wind turbine developed by the company was installed off the coast of Fukushima, and its demonstration operation phase is under way. In this article, concerning the design of V-shaped semi-submersible floating structure and the adopted construction and mooring method therefor, the actual work in the stages from construction to installation were reviewed and verified for validity, and based on the findings obtained from the review and the results of the in-house research that has been separately conducted, the future commercialization was studied. The verification results showed that the V-shaped semi-submersible floating structure has the expected performance, construction properties and mooring workability and offers superior economic efficiency. On the other hand, a study of future mass production and commercialization revealed that there is plenty of room for the improvement of the design and comprehensive cost reduction through a review of the mooring method, construction procedures, etc.