The potential use of press-in methods in the offshore renewables industry

Currently, the offshore renewables industry uses a range of foundation systems originally developed for the oil and gas sector. However, innovative foundation measures still need to be developed for offshore renewables because of key differences in scale, loading conditions and the geographical areas in which renewable developments are deployed. Furthermore, the large-scale of offshore wind developments means there is often significant uncertainty regarding the ground conditions between site investigation points. With this in mind, this paper explores the potential use of press-in pile technology for offshore renewable development. Firstly the paper looks at how press-in piling data can be used to inform and ground-truth soil models during pile installation, as well as informing the in-service behaviour of a structure. The paper then describes a number of innovations that may allow for reduced costs and environmental impacts of offshore foundations.