11.7% LCOE reduction
“The novel substructure is made from concrete and has several advantages over conventional foundations”
Business Case
In 2020 OWLC engaged globally recognised renewable energy consultants BVG Associates to deliver an independent cost analysis of the Gravity Tripod™.
In order to create their report BVG assessed the costs and LCOE for the project using the Gravity Tripod™ and compared this to a project using a conventional foundation, in both cases it was assumed to be a 504MW farm. The cost and energy elements that were used to estimate the LCOE were development, turbine, foundation, array electrical, installation, transmission, OMS, energy production, construction timing and decommissioning.
The Gravity Tripod key areas of cost advantage were found to be
- Development Cost
- Installation Cost
- 100 Year Design Life
Development cost
The Gravity Tripod shows a significant cost reduction over conventional foundations due to the lack of requirement for environmental, geophysical and geotechnical surveys related to piling as there is none.
Installation cost
The Gravity Tripod™ was found to be 51% cheaper than a jacket substructure and 36% cheaper than a monopile to install – due to its embedded design that allows installation of a complete turbine in one day.
100 year design life
Unlike most substructures that have a 25 year design life, the Gravity Tripod™ has a 100 year design, making re-powering practical and easy to achieve. The Gravity Tripod™ is also designed for turbines up to and beyond 25 MW.
