Recipient organisationSeabed Scour Control Systems Limited
Funding£1.9M
PeriodDec 2018 — Mar 2022
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Offshore wind turbine foundations are now being fitted with mats of artificial seaweed that automatically unfurl to stop the seabed washing away beneath them. Scour—the erosion of sandy seabeds around turbine foundations and subsea cables by currents and waves—costs the offshore wind industry heavily in repairs and lost energy production. Current solutions rely on dumping rock from large vessels, which is expensive, requires ongoing maintenance, and creates health, safety, and environmental risks. This project adapts a frond-mat system already proven in oil and gas, but adds a self-deployment mechanism built into the foundation during onshore construction. The mats deploy automatically as the foundation is installed, eliminating separate offshore operations entirely. If successful, the system could save £150–200 million per project in the UK alone, and billions globally. It removes the need for heavy rock-dumping vessels, cutting diesel use and offshore hazards. The mats use environmentally accepted materials that mimic nature’s own scour prevention. This is a direct engineering solution with no fundamental science component—it adapts an existing technology to a new industrial context, targeting a specific infrastructure problem that currently drives up the cost of offshore wind energy.
View original technical description
"SISProtect will develop and demonstrate a solution to address the construction and O&M costs, health and safety and environmental factors associated with current scour protection systems. Scour is the erosion of the seabed caused by moving water such as those commonly experienced in offshore environments where the sea currents / waves cause sandy seabeds to become eroded around offshore wind turbine foundations and other assets such as subsea cables, etc. SISProtect will provide a cost effective and long term (permanent) solution for this issue which can cost the offshore wind industry significantly if suitable measures are not taken, resulting in higher costs of energy from the offshore wind farm installations. The SSCS Frond Mat system, which are mats of 'artificial seaweed' provides cost, H&S, and environmental benefits whilst providing robust scour protection. This is achieved through: A cost effective scour protection system engineered and installed to the foundation within the safety and security of an onshore facility; improved deployment times when compared with existing solutions; the system requires no ongoing maintenance in contrast to rocks and other 'conventional' methods; no need for large heavy lift / rock dumping vessels thereby reducing diesel usage and opportunities for H&S issues offshore; the environment by utilising environmentally accepted materials to recreate natures method of scour prevention. Whilst frond mat concept has been field proven in the Oil and Gas sector in water depths of up to and over 100m, it has not been possible to date to model and adapt the Mats deployment methodology specifically for offshore wind farm turbine foundations without an opportunity such as the one being offered by this project. The main consideration for this project is the innovative deployment system, developed by SPT Offshore, that would be incorporated with the foundation during construction and would automatically deploy the Frond Mats during foundation installation. This self-deployment system would therefore eliminate the need for separate offshore operations to install scour protection resulting in significant cost savings, as well as reducing the HSE impact associated with offshore operations. A specific deployment system will be developed to achieve this, along with Frond Mats designed and manufactured to suit the system. Successful completion will see a globally unique solution developed in the UK capable of saving £150-200m for project in the UK alone, comfortably allowing estimating savings in the £billions globally."
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