This paper presents GW-scale floating wind farm reference designs tailored to the site conditions of three regions. The array designs use a 15 MW semisubmersible floating turbine and include the array layout, mooring systems, dynamic power cables, array cable routing, and floating substations. The layout methodology includes spatial constraints for each subsystem. The resulting reference arrays provide open-source baseline designs to facilitate future floating wind research at the array scale.

This paper studies the instantaneous centre of rotation (ICR) of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). We present a method for computing the ICR and examine the correlations between the external loading, design features, ICR statistics, motions, and loads. We demonstrate how to apply the new insights to successfully modify the designs of the spar and semisubmersible FOWTs to reduce the loads in the moorings, the tower, and the blades, improving the ultimate strength and fatigue properties.

As climate change increasingly impacts our daily lives, a transition towards cleaner energy is needed. With all the growth in floating offshore wind and the planned floating wind farms (FWFs) in the next few years, we urgently need new techniques and methodologies to accommodate the differences between the fixed bottom and FWFs. This paper presents a novel methodology to decrease aerodynamic losses inside an FWF by passively relocating the downwind floating wind turbines out of the wakes.