Tube 2018 - FA 09 Tripods, Jackets and Tripiles: Innovative Tube Systems for Offshore Wind Energy Systems
Steel tubes or steel tube systems are among the most frequently used constructive elements for the foundations of offshore wind energy systems. In addition to the size and the weight of a wind energy turbine, water depth plays a primary role when it comes to choosing the type of foundation, and it normally increases in line with the distance to shore. In the “Wind Energy Report Germany 2014” published in mid-2015, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology in Kassel (Fraunhofer Institut für Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik, IWES) says that the most important offshore countries increasingly rely on a further extension of their farshore energy systems, i.e. offshore sites with a distance from shore of at least three nautical miles or 5.5 kilometres.