More environmentally friendly, efficient, and easier installation of offshore wind

Askøy-based Framo is a world-leading designer, manufacturer, and supplier of pump solutions for shipping, oil and gas, offshore wind, and aquaculture. The company has three factories in Vestland county, where they conduct full-scale testing of their products, as well as a comprehensive service workshop.

Idea introduced in the 1960s

The concept of offshore suction anchors, or “buckets,” was first introduced by the American geotechnical engineer and professor Richard E. Goodman and others in 1961. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the oil and gas industry began to apply this technology. Since then, it has been widely used to anchor platforms and jacket structures.

After the idea was commercialized, Framo and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) have used various forms of pump and monitoring equipment that utilize this technology.

First used in England

Framo first applied this concept to offshore wind during the Dudgeon trials off the coast of England in 2013. In 2018, Framo technology was used at Ørsted’s offshore wind farm Borkum Riffgrund II in the German part of the North Sea.

The largest commercial wind project to date using this technology is the Seagreen offshore wind farm east of Scotland, with 114 jackets fully installed in 2023. To meet the scope of the Seagreen project, a new innovative system was designed and produced at Framo’s Flatøy facility in Frekhaug, north of Bergen.

See video of sucket bucket installation

Environmentally friendly and efficient installation

Historically, around 80-85 percent of all offshore wind turbines have been installed using monopile foundations, which are driven into the seabed with hammers. This method creates significant noise and requires costly noise mitigation to protect marine life.

Suction anchor technology uses pumps instead of hammers, resulting in an almost noise-free installation. Additionally, the jackets can be installed in a single offshore operation. When they are decommissioned in 25-30 years, all the steel can be removed from the ground by pumping water back into the buckets.

The suction anchor jacket can also be precisely leveled during the suction operation, eliminating the need for secondary leveling of the flange/interface to the upper structure. This results in reduced overall time consumption.

The trend is deeper and further from shore

The extent to which this technology is adopted by the market depends on several factors, including political decisions on noise restrictions and commercial incentives to choose pump technology over hammers. It also depends on technological advancements in automated fabrication of jacket structures.

A trend in the market is that offshore wind is going deeper and further from shore, which favors jacket design. Framo’s next project will be the Greater Changhua project in Taiwan.