Deepwater Wind:
A Balanced Approach to Accelerating Offshore Wind Deployment

Floating wind is essential, especially for initiatives such as the UK’s INTOG and for expansion into deeper waters, but scaling it at pace requires major port upgrades and a maturing supply chain.

Deepwater fixed‑bottom solutions (~60–120 m) offer a faster, lower‑risk route to add capacity now.

Wood Thilsted's Role in Deepwater and Floating Delivery

Wood Thilsted is helping drive the transition into deeper waters by delivering the geophysical, geotechnical, structural, and installation‑focused engineering needed for floating offshore wind at scale.

While floating infrastructure and supporting supply chains continue to expand, our innovations in deepwater fixed‑bottom foundations (70–150 m) enable developers to accelerate capacity now, reducing risk and maintaining momentum as floating deployment grows.

Monopiles

Wood Thilsted’s advanced engineering methods – refined across some of the world’s largest offshore wind projects – deliver lighter, more efficient, and fabrication‑ready monopiles that give developers a faster, more reliable path to installation and long‑term performance.

Jackets

Wood Thilsted’s advanced engineering methods ensure jackets perform reliably in challenging seabed and metocean conditions, while reducing steel use, simplifying installation and supporting cost‑effective delivery across fixed‑bottom and transitional‑depth projects.

Deepwater Wind

Wood Thilsted is advancing deepwater offshore wind by applying advanced QI and integrated site characterisation to boost floating wind efficiency, including for ScotWind, while innovating to extend proven fixed‑bottom solutions into deeper waters for faster, lower‑risk project delivery.

Floating Offshore Wind

Wood Thilsted’s specialist floating wind engineering optimises mooring, and anchor performance in deepwater environments, integrating advanced site data and analysis to reduce risk, streamline installation, and enable cost‑effective delivery across floating offshore wind projects.

Shaping the future of Deepwater Wind

Services include:

Energy & Climate Analytics

Our specialists combine leading wind consultancy and metocean expertise to deliver high‑quality deepwater and floating offshore wind assessments. Decades of atmospheric and oceanographic analysis support accurate energy production estimates, site condition evaluations, and climate‑driven studies, helping developers optimise offshore wind design, reduce uncertainty, and accelerate successful project delivery.

Measurement campaign specification

Pre-construction Energy Production Assessment

Atmospheric and Oceanographic Site Conditions Assessment (AOSCA)

Layout design

Weather window Analysis

Geotechnical & Geophysical Survey Management

Every site is different, and from the outset, our team establishes a clear site development strategy designed to manage time and cost effectively.

This means survey management scopes tailored to the needs of each project stage – never a one-size-fits-all approach. We can step away after defining the scope or take full responsibility for running tenders and managing the process.

Site development survey strategy

G&G Survey

Lab Testing Management

Ground Engineering

Wood Thilsted provides cutting‑edge ground engineering for deepwater and floating offshore wind, combining advanced geotechnical analysis, soil–structure interaction techniques, and expert geophysical survey support. We assess feasibility for fixed‑bottom and floating foundations and deliver detailed seabed studies, including mobility, scour, and cable routing. With contractor-side experience and integrated GIS capabilities, our team ensures high‑quality ground models, efficient survey management, and optimised foundation designs tailored to the demands of floating and deepwater environments.

Desk Study

Landfall assessment

Preliminary GIR

GIR

Export cable route selection

Cable route selection

Cable route engineering

Client representative

Geotech representative

Geotech FEM

Anchor feasibility assessment

Foundation feasibility assessment

GIS project

GIS data management

Ground modelling

Floating Concept Design, Moorings & Cables

Wood Thilsted delivers industry‑leading anchor, mooring, and structural design for floating offshore wind, combining advanced analysis, detailed seabed understanding, and integrated engineering expertise. We design efficient, reliable station‑keeping systems and optimise floating substructures to ensure safe, cost‑effective performance across deepwater environments and the full floating wind project lifecycle.

Foundation feasibility studies & mapping

Anchor solution & mooring systems

Cable feasibility studies

Concept design

Integrated loads analysis

Platform hydrodynamics

Soil anchor interactions

Cable route engineering

Cable burial engineering

Anchor feasibility assessment

Fabrication, Transport & Installation

Wood Thilsted delivers efficient solutions to support the installation of deepwater and floating offshore wind by integrating global experience with in‑house engineering. We optimise transport and installation for any contractor and use Orcaflex alongside proprietary tools to analyse and design floating structures that support the next generation of offshore wind projects.

Fabrication inspection

Interface management with T&I contractors

Requirements management

Design of transportation and installation aids

Owner's Engineer

Wood Thilsted provides dedicated Owner’s Engineer services for floating offshore wind, combining deep technical expertise with rigorous project oversight. We review designs, manage risks, optimise interfaces, and guide contractors to ensure safe, efficient, and bankable delivery – supporting developers from early feasibility through fabrication, installation, and operational readiness in deepwater environments.

Windfarm site layout

Energy production assessment

Cost model and comparative analysis

Technical due dilligance

Feasibility studies

Assembly, installation and O&M ports

Integrity management

Learn More About Wood Thilsted's Services

Beyond Floating: Why Deepwater Wind Holds the Key to the UK’s Clean Energy Targets

Alastair Muir Wood, CEO

February 18, 2025: The UK has set ambitious clean energy targets for 2030 as part of its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. In its Clean Power 2030 report, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) called for offshore wind to form the backbone of Great Britain’s clean energy strategy, recommending that it provides over half of the nation’s power generation by 2030 to achieve a fully clean power system. This requires expanding offshore wind capacity to 50 GW by 2030, including 5 GW from floating wind – a substantial commitment to a nascent and relatively unproven technology at scale.

"Being B Corp Certified means we're part of a global community committed to not just being the best for our clients but being the best for all people and the planet - we want to be a Force for Good™."

— Alastair Muir Wood, CEO and Co-Founder

Deepwater Wind:A Balanced Approach to Accelerating Offshore Wind Deployment