Session: 09-07-02 Tidal & Current Energy I

Submission Number: 181510

A Review of the Geotechnical Challenges and Foundation Concepts for Emerging Offshore Renewable Energy Technologies 

The global demand for renewable energy continues to grow rapidly, driven by the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. Given the intermittent nature of many renewable energy sources, a diversified energy mix is essential to ensure a stable and reliable supply. Among offshore renewables, offshore wind has achieved the most significant commercial maturity, but several emerging technologies, particularly wave, tidal stream, and floating solar, are advancing quickly.

Tidal stream energy is progressing from individual demonstrators to pilot farms, while wave energy is now reaching full-scale device demonstration stage. Meanwhile, floating solar has seen remarkable recent growth, with commercial deployment in freshwater environments and demonstration projects under way offshore.

The development of foundation and mooring solutions is critical to enabling demonstration projects, and the optimisation of these solutions is key to achieving cost reductions and increasing the scale of deployment as the industry moves towards pilot and commercial farms. Considering this, NGI carried out a study to establish the state of the art in foundation concepts and to identify the main technical challenges and developmental needs from a geotechnical perspective.

This paper presents NGI’s findings, based on a literature review, interviews with leading technology developers, and discussions with researchers at NGI and European academic institutions. The insights gained provide an overview of current design approaches, highlight the unique challenges posed by each technology, and outline research priorities to support safe, sustainable, and cost-effective deployment of next-generation offshore renewable systems.

Presenting Author: Emily Anderson Norwegian Geotechnical Institute

Presenting Author Biography: Emily holds a MEng in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol and a DPhil from the University of Oxford. She carried out her PhD in the Renewable Energy Marine Structures Centre for Doctoral Training, on the topic Identification of Offshore Wind Turbine Foundation Properties from Monitoring Data. She is now working at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in the Offshore Energy division.

Authors:

Emily Anderson Norwegian Geotechnical Institute
Nallathamby Sivasithamparam Norwegian Geotechnical Institute