The development of the floating foundation BRUNEL accelerates as Ramboll is appointed for the design scope

With the ambition to fast-track the route to market for the floating foundation BRUNEL, Brunel Floating AS, a Fred. Olsen 1848 company, has appointed Ramboll to initiate the design scope to accelerate the technological maturity of BRUNEL towards commercial application.

BRUNEL is a semi-submersible steel foundation with a modular design of tubulars that can tap into the existing global supply chain, ideal for serial production and enables a high deployment rate. BRUNEL offers a cost efficient and flexible O&M solution for on-site main component exchange.

Ramboll is known to be one of the most reputable independent engineering and technological advisory companies within the renewable energy sector and has experience from working within the offshore wind industry. Their design scope of work for BRUNEL covers fabrication development, design of steel structures and mooring system, logistics, transportation, installation, as well as operation and maintenance procedures.

The floating foundation design will be prepared with preliminary input data for final design, which will ease the process for site-specific certification and implementation. Completion is planned first half of 2024, for BRUNEL to enter project specific design thereafter.

The process will be carried out according to DNV’s certification scheme for floating wind turbines (DNV-SE-0422). A close cooperation with DNV and their strong subject matter expertise is important to solve the most challenging aspects of designing a floating wind turbine foundation.

Esben Strandgaard Kyndesen, Chief Commercial Officer, Fred. Olsen 1848: “The floating wind industry is evolving at a high pace, and to realise its potential strong collaborations between industry players is a necessity. We are therefore very pleased to announce the appointment of Ramboll as an independent engineering consultant to support us in taking BRUNEL forward for commercial scale projects. Ramboll’s solid track record in combination with the planned model testing at SINTEF Ocean will mature BRUNEL in the pace needed and provide bankability of the industrialized technology.”

Andreas Buvarp Aardal, Senior Development Engineer, Fred. Olsen 1848: “We see Ramboll as the perfect fit to support our onwards journey for BRUNEL. There is a good match with our strong engineering heritage and the competency Ramboll brings to the table. BRUNEL has a unique advantage when it comes to modularity and flexibility in the supply chain, and Ramboll will contribute to progress BRUNEL to the next design stage and enable us to build a strong position in the market.”

Denis Matha, Global Head of Floating Wind, Ramboll: “It is with great excitement we announce that, Fred. Olsen 1848 has trusted Ramboll with this task. As one of the few truly independent consultants in the floating wind industry we work towards a sustainable future and are thus very pleased having been selected to support the next design phase of the BRUNEL floating foundation and apply our engineering know-how and expertise in this exciting project.”