Synthetic Tendons for MPS' Floating Wind Tension Leg Platform

Marine Power Systems is collaborating with cable manufacturer FibreMax to provide integrated floating foundation and tendon solutions to the growing floating offshore wind sector.

The tendon solution will be used in the anchoring and moorings of Marine Power Systems tension leg platform (TLP), PelaFlex, to deliver the "highest system stability and zero tilt."

According to MPS, this will be the world’s first tension leg platform with FibreMax tendons, made with Twaron fiber from Teijin, a company specializing in aramid fibers. 

Compared to traditional steel moorings, synthetic cable offers a much better strength-to-weight ratio, longer operational life and lower levels of maintenance, MPS said.

"FibreMax, based in the Netherlands, have been producing the world’s strongest synthetic cables and supplying them to the offshore renewables industry since 2009. Their unique and proprietary process uses endless winding technology to continuously wind parallel strands of fibres until the right cable strength and length is reached. This creates cables with the highest breaking load, very low stretch and lowest diameter possible," MPS said.

Gareth Stockman, CEO at MPS said: “We see our partners and suppliers as very much part our team, and with the addition of FibreMax we are benefiting from the very best expertise in the industry and developing an extremely credible floating offshore wind delivery solution for the global market.”

Marine Power Systems claims that its floating offshore platform technology offers best in class cost compared with its peers due to the significantly reduced system mass. 

Moreover, the company says its modular and flexible design, enables optimum local content delivery through a decentralised logistics model. 

Sander van Helvoort, Director Renewable Energy at FibreMax commented, “We’re proud to be part of the Marine Power Systems team and delivering our unique tendons for the world’s first TLP with synthetic tendons. This brings together two unique and innovative technologies, the PelaFlex floating platform and the FibreMax tendons made with circular Twaron (Aramid) fibres made by Teijin. While working with Marine Power Systems we’ve developed an excellent relationship which is now formalised and will allow both MPS and FibreMax to further expand, support and develop our relationship to deliver successful projects.”